


Turn right

by Orcana



Category: Naruto
Genre: Accidental Bonding, Adventure, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Dubious Consent, Eventual Sexual Exploration, F/M, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff, Hatake Kakashi Has Issues, Hurt/Comfort, Kisame is a good guy, Light Angst, Multi, No Uchiha Massacre, Puberty, Sasuke has other issues, Sexual Content, Shimura Danzo is a senile old man but still a bastard, Slow Burn, Though it probably isn't what you think, Underage Kissing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:02:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 57,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26621083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orcana/pseuds/Orcana
Summary: The mission in Wave country goes pear-shaped, the genin were all unprepared but none more so than Sakura. After Wave things start to change little by little, an unexpected sensei turns up and things take interesting turns.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura/Hoshigaki Kisame
Comments: 273
Kudos: 656





	1. Wave country

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome!
> 
> Some things to note: 
> 
> I have been through the entire Naruto series but it's a while back and I don't fact check everything. I also mess with the timelines somewhat and I'm not exactly canon compliant. I suppose one thing you should know is that Uchiha Obitos plans were put in to motion much later than he intended.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome! 
> 
> Some things to note: 
> 
> I have been through the entire Naruto series but it's a while back and I don't fact check everything. I also mess with the timelines somewhat and I'm not exactly canon compliant( and I have completely hijacked the Kiri timeline and it's people)  
> I'm also altering some ages a tiny tiny bit, the older generation will be a year or three younger than canon.
> 
> Also, Uchiha Obitos plans were put in to motion later than he intended

Haruno Sakura had just turned 13 years old, it had been a strange birthday without any of the usual cake and fun because she was currently on a mission. On her team she had Uzumaki Naruto, prankster and loudmouth extraordinaire -and Uchiha Sasuke, handsome, gloomy and mysterious second son of Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Mikoto and second in line for clan heir. Their sensei and team leader was Hatake Kakashi, copy ninja and wielder of a thousand jutsu. 

Sakura was sat on one of the little piers that were everywhere, she was sulking. She leaned forwards and stared down in to the water, it was still enough where she could see her reflected image. Pretty cute if she did say so herself.. Her face twisted and her eyes turned glassy, she had almost died today -her entire team could have died today. Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun and Naruto had all fought, she had guarded the Client -an important job, but what use could she have been fighting? Their very first C-rank mission had turned in to a nightmare-ish experience. First those nasty.. Demon brothers, Kakashi-Sensei had called them. Then, when they were almost at their destination, the demon of the mist had come out of the thick fog to hack them to bits with the biggest sword she had ever seen in her life. 

She had stood in front of the client with her kunai, she might as well have held a stick because if any of the clones or god forbid the demon himself had made it through to her they would have both been slayed. She had been so scared her knees had been shaking but she had stood her ground all the same, she hadn't known what to do other than follow the simple order. To stand guard. With a tiny knife. 

Why though.. Her team had been doing D-ranks for a few months before this mission, shouldn't she have learnt something by now? Kakashi-sensei was so cool and skilled but he didn't seem to like her very much, he seemed at least mildly interested in idiot-Naruto and Sasuke-kun so why not her? 

She supposed she could have made a bit more effort in training, although she didn’t really feel like the boys gave it their best either with the way they bickered constantly. She resolved to train a bit harder, she and Ino had liked the idea of the handsome prince charming coming to her rescue but maybe that wasn’t always a viable option.. Hm.. 

Her thoughts strayed back to Sasuke-kun and she felt a bit lighter, they were all okay after all even though Kakashi-sensei had passed out briefly after the fight and was on bedrest. 

She put on a smile and went back in to Tazunas house to see her boys. 

The next few days were spent learning to tree-walk, or well -she had mastered it the first day really but the boys still had a ways to go. She spent her days guarding the bridge workers, practicing her kata and enjoying the scenery. She stretched and yawned, she'd had her lunch on the boardwalk and was now kicking her feet and watching a school of small fish when all of a sudden she noticed something distinctly.. Odd.. 

One of the fish, a long sleek one with thick dark markings had caught her eye and she got the distinct sense that it was.. Winking at her? Did fish even have eyelids? It started swimming further away, pausing every now and then to turn back towards her and give her that weird fish eye. 

Sakura who still had some time left before she had to return to duty got up and followed the fish along the pier, there was an odd sort of lump a bit further down at the edge of the water and the fish seemed to have stopped there. 

She squinted at the lump, was it a dead seal or something? As she walked closer more features became visible to her, a tuft of hair and.. An arm?! "Oh my god it's a person!" 

Heart thundering away in her chest she ran to the unknown person lying face down in the shallow water. After much effort she managed to heave him on to his back and drag him up on the sandbank. He was massive, and currently blue -not a good sign! He also had several flesh-wounds and smaller gashes everywhere though they seemed to have mostly stopped bleeding, and by some miracle he was not dead. She thought he might have opened an eye just a smidgen but he didn't move otherwise. 

Some of the workers had heard her exclamation, they hurried over to help and they carried him a bit further inland. Sakura only had the bare essentials on her as far as first aid went but she did what she could to rinse and bind the worst of the wounds. A few minutes later (or possibly longer, it was hard to tell) Kakashi-sensei arrived on the scene and Sakura watched as his eye widened and the tiny patch of visible skin on his face paled. The next thing she knew both Kakashi and the unfortunate man had disappeared in a whirl of leaves _Huh? What the hell?!_ Inner was as mystified as she was. 

The men eventually went back to work and Sakura completed her guard rotation without further incident, she and the boys returned to the cabin that night but they didn't see Kakashi till the next morning. 

"Kakashi-sensei, where did you go? Is that man going to be ok?" 

Kakashi looked up from his orange book. "Ah, Sakura-chan. That man is a very dangerous individual and I have restrained him for the time being and sent for reinforcements, the level of this mission is beyond acceptable at this point" 

Predictably Naruto jumped to his feet and started making declarations "I'll protect you Sakura-chan!" He grabbed Sasuke by the shoulders and shook him "Hey hey teme, we could probably take him right?!"

"Dobe get off me!" 

Kakashi raised his book a little higher and thoroughly ignored the ensuing circus. 

A few days on a squad of anbu had arrived, Zabuza and Haku cut their losses to live another day and Gato was promptly disposed of. The anbu and the prisoner left, and when the bridge was complete -so did team 7. Incidentally, they named the bridge "The great Kaiza bridge" after Inaris father. 

\---- 

Deep down in the underbelly of Konohas T&I division Nara Shikaku was trying to will away his headache, turning his head to face his old friend he sighed "Ino, are you sure about this?" Yamanaka Inoichis lips twitched slightly upwards. 

The prisoner had been mindwalked, questioned and interrogated up down and sideways. The information he carried was disturbing to say the least, though they really didn't know what to make of it. They had briefed the Hokage and the council on the situation, the most pressing question at this moment was what to do with their prisoner

"Well" Inoichi piped up "He could technically be considered a refugee.." 

Shikakus head hit his desk and he groaned loudly "This is going to be so troublesome" He raised his head slowly and signaled to an anbu hidden in a corner "Get me Kōzō Dōzaka" 

Inoichi snickered "Don't be so dramatic, Shika" he peered through the one-way window at their prisoner. This was going to be interesting for sure.


	2. Chunin exams pt.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whops, so the very first part of this chapter should probably have been posted with chapter one. Anyway. Prisoner flashback, team 7 enters the chunin exams.

Prisoner flashback: 

Hoshigaki Kisame was at a loss. Almost two years since he left Kiri, two years of wandering, thinking, picking up stray missions and surviving. What was he to do with his life? 

He had left after discovering the betrayal of his former master and the slaughter that followed, that bastard Fuguki - And what in all hells was wrong with the Mizukage?! Kirigakure had enough problems as it was! Bloodlinepurges?! 

Kisame rubbed at his face tiredly and heaved a big sigh, well.. At least he had managed to lose the hunter-nin he had somehow picked up yesterday(for now anyway) -and his stick of fish was almost done roasting, small blessings. 

He ate his supper and laid down on his back, then glanced over at the sword he had won from its previous master. Eh, he supposed things would work out somehow. 

Just as the though left him what looked like a platoon and a half of nin appeared on the lake. 

"Not so lost after all then" He said with a laugh and a somewhat unhinged grin that showed all his teeth. "Saikōtaichō, it's nice to see you -Even if the circumstances are less than ideal. To what do I owe this dubious honor?" 

A man with a white mask with slits for eyeholes stepped forth "Hoshigaki Kisame, formerly of the 7 Swordsmen and weilder of the Samehada, surrender your sword and come quietly" 

What followed had been a literal bloodbath. 

End flashback. 

\--- 

Life in Konoha went on. It had been almost 8 months since the wave mission and team 7 had long since returned, after a mandatory rest period they had resumed training. 

They had been working on water walking and the shunshin technique, and there was a lot of taijutsu. Sakura did participate but more often than not Sasuke and Naruto ended up going toe to toe, either because Kakashi-sensei said they should or because they got angry with each other and then forgot she was there.  


Sakura had taken to doing basic strength exercises and bringing various books to keep herself occupied when this happened, and Inner - which had mostly been some kind of.. coping mechanism to deal with her feelings? (She really wasn't sure what Inner was to be honest) Anyway, Inner had started putting in her two cents every now and then. Currently they were reading up on chakra control since they had been told this was something they were good at, and they had started practicing sticking multiple leaves to themselves and moving them around. 

Other than this, Sasuke had started getting personalized training from his clan shortly after the mission. Naruto had private tutoring as well, he had started seals lessons with Iruka-Sensei because apparently his clan was renowned for their seals and it was time he started learning. 

Sakura was starting to suspect she might have a stalker, but otherwise not much had changed in her life. She was a little upset if she was being honest, Kaka-Sensei showed up for missions and regular training but was otherwise as nonchalant and distant as ever. 

She had tried asking him for extra genjutsu traning a few times, but he had made excuses and it hadn’t amounted to anything. She wasn’t sure what to make of that, but had decided to use the “extra” free time to pamper herself. She was a lady after all. 

Also.. D-ranks, lots and lots of D-ranks with the occasional C-rank thrown in the mix (Nothing had come close to being as dramatic as their first C-rank had been) 

On this particularly memorable day they had been supposed to help load, escort and unload a farmers cart. Naruto had been unable to connect the horse to the carriage, and being unwilling to wait for assistance had taken off with it himself -running full tilt - and stopping dead in his tracks once he reached the market. 

The resulting destruction of produce and property was going to be the talk of the town for weeks. Why was this her life? The irate farmer looked like he might have an aneurism at any moment and Sasuke didn’t look too good either. 

Inner was literally frothing at the mouth _“CHA! He’s making us look like idiots!”_ And Kakashi was.. Nowhere to be seen. Probably sitting in a tree somewhere reading porn. 

Despite the frequent mishaps and subsequent squabbles, they were getting closer as a team. They managed to make plans during missions and see them through (sometimes) and they had team dinners every once in a while. Naruto was a bit less loud, Sasuke was less frosty, Kakashi was around a bit more. It was nice. 

\--- 

It was Wednesday and they had been waiting for Kakashi to show up to training, when he finally did, it was with the news that he had nominated them for the upcoming Chunin exam. 

"Here you go, you each have to fill these out and hand them in when you enter" He gave them an eye-smile "You have until Friday to decide" Then he shunshinned away. 

Sakura gaped at the spot he had just dissapeared from. "W-what??" She turned to Sasuke 

"I'm going for it" He said. "It'll be expected of me as a son of the main family, even though Itachi is the heir" He made a face she couldn’t quite decipher. He mumbled something more but it was impossible to make out over Narutos exclaimed "Yes! We're gonna be chunin! Believe it! Let's get ramen to celebrate!" 

Neither Sakura nor Sasuke was in the mood for ramen, but they went and had some with Naruto anyway. 

\---- 

On the day of the exam they all showed up, filled out forms in hand. They made their way past the strange boys with the genjustu and proceeded to take the written exam. She had been sure they were gonna fail on the count of Naruto not knowing the answers, but then that 10th question and Narutos high spirits and drive took care of that. 

The forest of death had been a disaster from beginning to end, overpowered teams and then THE SNAKE SANNIN -what kind of crappy security had they set up for this stupid exam anyway?! 

That bite, she had been in a bad way after the beating she took but Sasuke had seemed completely deranged when he woke up. Sakura wanted to be happy and giddy that he had wanted to avenge her, but something had been seriously wrong and it was still not right. 

Then they were thrown straight in to preliminary matches. Naruto won his match against Kiba in what might have been the most embarrassing way possible -Inner had cackled while Sakura hid her face in her hands. 

Sasuke won his match and was promptly whisked away by Kakashi-sensei. Sakura watched in a daze as more matches passed by and then: 

"Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino" The proctor coughed and looked at her expectantly. She nodded and made her way down in to the arena. 

Down in the arena Sakura and Ino stared at eachother for about 30 seconds and then proceeded to banter back and forth a bit. Ino and Sakura both tied their forheadprotectors on to their actual forheads, and Ino yelled "This is about you and me, forehead!" 

Sakura smiled at her once friend turned rival "I won't be beaten by you Ino-pig!" 

They charged eachother head on, fighting with taijutsu, kunai and shuriken. To Sakuras great surprise and Inos indignation, they were pretty evenly matched. 

At some point Sakura was caught in Ino's mind transfer jutsu, Sakura and Inner had become more in tune with each other and as Inner rose up within the headspace like some specter from a horror movie, Sakura mentally prepared to pounce. 

There was no hesitation, Inner pulled her fist back and swung hard at Inos avatar _"SHANNARO!"_

Sakura regained control of herself instantly and charged towards Ino who was getting to her feet with shock writ all over her face. Mimicking Inner's action, Sakura swung her fist as hard as she could at Ino's head. Ino dropped like a sack of potatoes and she didn’t get back up. 

There was dead silence in the stadium and she could see more than one person gaping at her. Should she feel insulted? 

"Uh, winner -Haruno Sakura" proclaimed the proctor. She calmly walked up the stairs and joined Naruto in the stands while med-nin took care of Ino. Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei were not back yet, she really hoped everything was ok. 

"Wow Sakura! That was awesome, they way you punched her like pow! Did you see her face when you punched her?! Nyeh heh heh!" 

Sakura smiled "Thank you, Naruto. I guess this means we’re all in the final round" At this, Naruto started babbling excitedly about their collective awesomeness and how they were going to win the whole thing. 

After the matches the Hokage held what felt like a long-winded speech about the will of fire, loyalty to ones villages and cooperation and then: "The final matches will be as follows:" 

Uzumaki Naruto vs. Hyūga Neji

Gaara vs. Uchiha Sasuke 

Kankurō vs. Aburame Shino 

Temari vs. Nara Shikamaru 

Kinuta Dozu vs. Haruno Sakura. 

"You have one month from today, use this time to recover and prepare for your upcoming fights" He smiled his grandfatherly smile and dismissed them. 

Dozu.. One of the creepy sound guys. She shuddered at the memories from the forest of death. Her previous performance had been.. Bad. She would have to up her game "And use your brain" piped up Inner. 

The shock of the surprise preliminaries had abated somewhat and Sakura had started to feel a little excited about her and her teams advancement. Her whole team had advanced and they were still rookies, what were the odds! "YES!" Both she and Inner did a fistpump. "Naruto! We'll have to train hard!" 

Naruto started jumping up and down in excitement "YESS! Where is that Sasuke-bastard and Kaka-sensei?? I wanna get started!" He put his hand above his eyes and started turning this way and that way as though scouting for them. It was cute. 

They waited around for a little while, but when neither showed up they decided to go home for the night and try to meet at training ground 7 in the morning. They did so every day after all.


	3. Chunin exams pt.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training, Abandonment, Chunin exam fights, New beginnings.
> 
> No squirrels were seriously injured during the making of this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi,
> 
> Thank you for reading my fic! I updated the tags a bit.
> 
> Also, I apologize for any formatting errors.

The next day Sakura showed up in training ground 7 to find.. Absolutely no one. 

Kakashi-sensei being late was kind of the norm, and Naruto too sometimes -but Sasuke-kun was always on time. What was going on? Was he still sick from that bite?

When an hour had passed and no one had arrived still she set off for the Uchiha compound to investigate, she was really worried. She knocked on his door, and the door opened to reveal his older brother. 

"Sakura-san, good morning" 

"Ah, good morning Itachi-san, is Sasuke-kun home?" We haven't seen him since his match yesterday and he didn't come to practice this morning" 

Itachi blinked "Sasuke had to undergo an, ah, procedure to contain the seal on his neck. Kakashi-san was best suited for the task so he did the ritual. He also came by early this morning and took Sasuke away for special training for his upcoming match with Gaara" 

Kakashi-sensei had taken Sasuke-kun away for training? What did that even mean? 

“What do you mean away? Away where? When will they be back?” 

Itachi stared at her in silence for a long minute, huh, he was kind of handsome wasn’t he. Inner was alternating between making hearty eyes and scowling. Well, this was awkward. 

Itachi scratched the back of his head “I’m sorry Sakura-san, he didn’t say” 

“I.. See.. Thanks anyway Itachi-san. Will you let them know that I'm looking for them if you see either?" Itachi nodded his head, Sakura bowed and left the compound. 

She set off towards Naruto’s apartment next, small flutterings of panic now making themselves known in the pit of her stomach. Inner hoovered in the back of her mind as she knocked on his door. No response. She peered through his windows, there was the usual mess of ramen-cups and clothes but no Naruto. She made a brief stop by the Ichiraku-ramen stand just in case but when they weren't there either she went to check training ground 7 again. 

Once there she sat herself underneath the tree closest to the bridge. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. 

Where was her team? She knew of course that they all needed to train for the exams but they were a unit anyway, weren’t they? 

She pulled out her newly acquired book, an unexpected find on what seemed to be some basics of genjutsu. She opened it where she had left off and stared blankly at the page. The words were blurring slightly, she was not going to cry, damn it! _“Damn right!”_ Yelled inner while waving a fist around in her mindscape. 

She put the book down and started doing warm-up stretches, she followed up with running rounds around the training ground and then went on to light katas and finished with repetitive kicks and punches. 

She beat on the training-posts till she was exhausted and proceeded to collapse on the ground. This had not been a good day so far, but there had to be some reasonable explanation to this all. She would go to town and treat herself to a late lunch, and then.. And then what? Maybe she should ask around a bit? She really wished she hadn’t ended her friendship with Ino, Ino would know what to do. 

Day four, still no teammates and her last few days had been the same as the first day after the exam except that she had finished her books on chakra and basic genjutsu and was unable to find anything more advanced in the Library section available to her. 

She did have a cry then and it was the desperate kind with trembles and loud sobs, blessedly inner stayed silent. What on earth was she going to do? She rubbed at her eyes with the palms of her hands, then she froze. She’d heard something over by the edge of the clearing, her mind had flashed to her teammates for a second. She squinted in the general direction but there was nothing. Whatever, she thought with a frown. 

She wiped her tears and went off to get lunch again and possibly try to track down her wayward teammates and Sensei. 

After talking to some of her former classmates she had found out that Naruto had been chasing after some pervert with white hair demanding training. That made very little sense, what on earth? 

“Yes, I believe he is being trained by the most esteemed Jiraya-sama!” Announced Maito Gai in his usual booming voice. “Oh.. Wow, thats.. Really something” She said and forced out a fake smile. 

Gai put his hands on his hips and leaned forward to be face to face with her “And who might your designated trainer for this exam be, young blossom?!” Sakura leaned backwards slightly, so loud.

"Um" She shuffled her feet "I haven’t found anyone yet” Internally Sakura cursed her lack of network, was this how it usually went with these exams? Why hadn’t Kakashi-sensei said anything? 

Gai was now frowning at her and it made her very uneasy, she quickly thanked him for his help, bowed and left. 

\---- 

Day six was spent plotting and practicing the one genjutsu in the entire book. It was a strange book, the cover and the first 10 pages were missing but it seemed really useful anyway. There were a lot of instructions on directing chakra to areas of the motor cortex, and also a lot of focus on intent for the illusion to work. 

Being unable to practice properly since she was by herself, she had taken what she considered a somewhat morally dubious step and decided her test-dummy for this would be the unfortunate squirrel that happened to be loitering in a nearby tree. 

She directed her chakra outward, did the required handsign and imagined what she wanted her illusion to do. It.. Did not work the way she had intended. The poor thing had just collapsed, she caught it as it tumbled from its tree. She supposed squirrel brain was too different from the human one, it would have been nice if her opponent would just collapse too but if that was a thing that happened a lot everyone would do it. She dispelled the illusion and the squirrel scampered off squeaking and nattering furiously at her all the while. 

She bit her lip. **Inner? You recon we can test this on ourselves?** She was sure you really weren’t supposed to.

Inner looked thoughtful _”Hm, I suppose? Even if you aren’t able to flare our chakra to dispel it I should be able to?”_ They did a test run with the chakra flare and deemed it safe.. Ish.. 

After a few casts that led to many bruises and a bloody nose, she sat down by the bridge in the training ground to try to plan out some kind of strategy for her upcoming match with Dosu. (if she shed a few tears too, you really couldn’t blame her) 

**Think Sakura think** , she thought to herself. **What do I know what do I know, he uses that sound thing on his arm as a weapon. Can i block it by covering my ears?**

 _“No”_ Said Inner _“Remember what happened to Choji? He used the water in his body to transfer the sound and he got knocked out even though his whole head was hidden”_ Inner had been very vocal lately compared to her 'normal', though she seemed to limit herself mostly to moments of rage, fighting and training. Sakura was thankful. 

**Hum, so can we somehow keep him from using it?** Sakura tried to imagine destroying the infernal thing, kunai didn't seem likely to do the trick. 

_“It looked pretty solid_ Mused Inner. _And he’s more advanced us in taijutsu and most things probably”_ She scowled at that. 

Their attempts at scheming were interrupted by a huge ruckus in the water underneath the bridge. “What the hell?!” Sakura and Inner Screeched in tandem, Sakura clapped a hand to her mouth. 

Water was splashing everywhere There.. Was a goddamn SHARK?! In the pond?! 

_“Don’t be an idiot Outer! Sharks don’t live in ponds!”_

The Shark -Because it was most definitely a shark what the fuck!- Flopped and flailed around until it was halfway on land and half in the water. Then it opened it’s very scary mouth and with much effort spat out.. A half-mangled book and four broad strips of.. Something. The shark then promptly exploded in a huge plume of smoke. She knew what this was. A summon. Someone had summoned a shark in the pond, and it had waited there, presumably to give her a book. 

She picked it up and read the title, Nature Transformation: A guide to understanding Elemental Chakra. Sakura peered around the clearing, where was the summoner? And who was the summoner? She was more than a little unnerved. As it was she thought she could maybe make out an unusual shadow in one of the trees. Or.. maybe not. 

She gave the unidentified four somethings a dubious look, two of them were larger and two were smaller. She picked one up, it was a little heavy. Hadn’t she seen something like this before? 

In her headspace a memory flashes forward. Rock Lee standing on top of a gigantic hands statue during the preliminaries, determination on his face, leg-weights soaring towards the ground. 

These were weights. 

He had been really fast and it had been awesome, she wouldn’t get anywhere close to that level but she supposed that anything that might give her an edge was worth trying and vowed to use them. Who did she know that might have wanted her to have these things? Kakashi-sensei? Iruka-Sensei? She doubted either of them could summon sharks though. She threw one last suspicious look at the weird tree and inspired by Inner she pointed and bellowed “CREEPY!” then she gathered her loot in her arms and ran home as fast as she could. 

She put on the weights later that day, it was uncomfortable and it didn’t look nice at all, she wrinkled her nose. She dug through her closet and found some old wrist-warmers that would cover them nicely. She modified two of them so that they could be used for her ankle-weights as well. Then she got out her new book and started reading.

Chapter 1. Water chakra, theory and application.

Ugh more leaves. Apparently, the first step in learning to manipulate water chakra was to take a leaf, somehow produce a watery feeling in your core (however one was supposed to do that), bring it up and out and concentrate it on the leaf to make it wet. 

She got started right away but even with Inner helping her focus, progress felt very slow. After three days she thought she might be getting the feeling for water in her core, or possibly she was just feeling queasy. Eh well she would give it a go anyway. She went out and gathered some leaves for the next step, then sat down on a nice patch of grass in the back yard to practice. 

She started bringing chakra from her core, up through her chest and down her arm to her hand and in to the leaf. The leaf bulged and burst in a splatter of green that went everywhere. She tried three more times with similar results. 

**Um. That can’t be right. Inner?** She tried to search for and mentally poke her.. Whatever she was. After a few attempts she appeared _“Nice, you made a mess. Maybe the chakra goes on the outside..?”_ And so Sakura started coating the leaf with chakra. It was slow, but she did it. She repeated the process several times. 

The next day she spent looking at the few beginners techniques listed in the book. Basically she had to mould the chakra, focus, gather and/or expel it somewhere and use hand-signs to do something with it. She decided to go for the mouth as a focus point first, seemed like a logical choice. 

She moulded the chakra. Ah there was that familiar queasy feeling in her gut, possibly she would just vomit rather than spit water. 

She did some hand-signs and willed it to move up up and felt the water coming, got ready to spit.. Her cheeks bulged and then the water gushed out pointlessly and dribbled down her front. “Damn it” 

She tried it with the tenketsu on her hands as well (and her feet too, though why she didnt know) there was plenty of water but it lacked form. Finally she thought she would attempt to lead and control it outside of her body, she frowned in concentration. Sweat started to appear on her forehead, she could see water slowly starting to trickle and gather in to a tiny tiny bubble. She swayed but caught herself with her arms before she fell on her ass. The tiny bubble burst. Huh, she supposed she had used too much chakra. 

The grass was looking very inviting, she laid down and sighed in content. She closed her eyes and fell right asleep.

Anbu Turtle kneeled in the grass next to the sleeping girl. It was a warm day, she would be ok resting here. He had been keeping an eye on her from a distance for a good while, as it was he thought she might have caught a glimpse of him once or twice (or ten times) but he hadn’t been trying very hard to hide honestly. He had watched her that day in training ground 3 too when she had burst in to tears, what had Hatake been thinking?! She’d noticed him for sure that day, he’d been furious on her behalf. 

He grinned behind his mask as he thought of their next “encounter” he had been very amused at her reaction to the shark, and he’d had to stifle his laugh when she had called him out (Even if he though creep was a bit harsh) He took her book and jotted down a few pointers. 

\----

The day of the final matches arrived at last. Sakura felt she had done her best to prepare, she’d trained hard and learned what she could with the time and resources she had and she’d invested in earplugs, even if it might not do her any good. 

Naruto and Nejis match was first, it was thrilling to watch. She couldn’t believe how much her teammate had improved in such a short amount of time! And what on earth was that red chakra?! She could hear the audience muttering and while the Hokage looked a little surprised the eyes of the Kazekage were practically bugging out of his skull. 

Naruto won his fight. She felt a bit bad for Neji hearing about his hardships, she hoped things would get better for him.

Shikamaru and Temari were up next, turned out the lazy sack of Nara from her class was some kind of genius strategist, huh. And then he forfeited. The crowd seemed displeased but Sakura thought his logic was sound. Smart.

Sasuke-kun and Gaara were supposed to have the next fight, but it was postponed since Sasuke and Kakashi still weren't here.

Shino and Kankuro, there was no fight at all. Kankuro didn't even bother entering the ring before forfeiting his fight. That was strange, hadn't he entered the exam to try for a promotion like the rest of them? It didn't add up and it made her uneasy.

_"Snap out of it, we're up!"_ Hollered Inner and Sakura gave a small start before making her way down to the arena. Dosu looked at her appraisingly before shifting his eyes to a swirl of leaves that had appeared to the side. When the leaves fluttered to the ground they revealed Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-Sensei. Sakura felt an unexpected jolt of anger at the sight of Kakashi. 

The proctor, a brunette with a senbon in his mouth cleared his throat "Hatake-san, please take your student up to the stands. This match is about to start" 

Kakashi was staring at her and he looked absolutely dumbfounded, he looked from Dosu to Sakura. "Sakura, uh" Then he looked around the arena as though trying to spot another person. When he found none he stared at her some more. 

Sasuke-kun was also staring, but she didn't mind that so much "You won your fight then" he said. 

There were a lot of weird emotions swirling around inside of her. Confusion, annoyance, nerves, happiness, other stuff. She didn't know how it was possible that Sasuke didn't know she had won, but she looked at him shyly anyway and answered "Yes" She was too nervous to say anything more even to her crush. She wanted to get this over and done with already. 

"Is there a problem Hatake-san?" The proctor enquired. Kakashi still looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights, he didn't answer, just grabbed hold of Sasuke and used a quick Shunshin to get up to the stands where they met up with Naruto. 

"Right, are you both ready?" Asked the proctor. Dosu nodded and so did Sakura. The proctor made a cutting motion with his hand "Begin!"

She immediately jumped back to gain some distance and threw a smoke bomb in Dosus direction, the next second he blasted it away with his sound device. Drat. 

He then held his hand forward as though taking aim and swung the side of the metal arm in her direction. Double drat! 

She ran up the wall to the side to avoid the coming blast of sound, thanked the heavens for her slightly-better-than-before-speed and hurled three shuriken at him. He knocked them away with ease, using his arm as a shield and threw kunai at her in return. She then spent the next 60 seconds or so running and replacing herself with rocks and miscellaneous items in the arena to avoid his sound attacks. She was going to have to get to it and soon if she was going to manage anything, she would run out of steam and chakra fast this way. She was also going to have to get in close. 

She used kawarimi to get within arms-length, smashed her hands together in the serpent sign and shouted “Illusion: Shibari!” 

Dosus eyes widened comically as his arms snapped to his sides and his legs snapped together. (The proctor spluttered and almost dropped his senbon) 

She knew she didn’t have long and promptly made her next few hand signs, she couldn’t speak as she was trying to gather water and so thought loudly **Water element: Water pellet!** and spat a small glob of dense water. 

She hit him square in the chest where it burst in a small explosion of water and she jumped back just as he dispelled the genjutsu. 

He wheezed and stumbled but then righted himself again. He tilted his head sideways slightly and gave her the most unnerving angry look and, was that a blush..? Strange. “You’ll pay for that little display!” He yelled and started chasing her around the arena, and again she had to play the dodge game. **Inner!, you’re up!** Inner clapped her hands together and focused. 

Dosu swung his metal arm at her again.. But no sound came. “What?” his eyes widened once more and he shook his arm lightly, presumably in some attempt to make it work. 

Sakura immediately engaged him in taijutsu, going in low to try and sweep his legs from underneath him. He dodged and followed up with a kick that she was barely able to block. She pulled out a kunai, he did the same and they clashed a few times before he tried his arm again with more force. Still no sound. He glanced at it again, the holes were covered in “Water..?!” 

Inner had taken charge of the chakra infused water, blocked the openings, trapping the sound. “This won’t work for long, Maximum power!” He yelled and swung his arm once again. She blocked with both arms, the metal arm cracked. “Oh sh-!” was all she heard before it exploded and she blacked out. 

\----

Sakura had woken up in the hospital in pain and disoriented. Both her arms were bandaged and touching her very sore face revealed that she had several smaller cuts and two rows of tight small stiches stretching from the middle of her forehead, slightly to the right and up in to her hairline. 

**Inner, what happened?** Inners visage flickered briefly in her mindscape but otherwise did not reply. 

Luckily she had woke up in a room full of other injured shinobi who were all too happy to share the events she had missed. 

The exams were over, the Hokage was dead. 

Sand and sound with Orochimaru in the lead had conspired against Konoha. He had killed the Hokage, and Sasuke, Naruto and a few others from the rookie 9 had fought Gaara who was the host of the one-tailed beast. 

Her match had apparently been a double knock out, and she had been asleep for two days due to chakra exhaustion and injuries. 

\----

The day she got out of the hospital was the day Sasuke left the village to join a madman in some crazy bid to out-do his older brother. 

Sakura had found him just as he was leaving and had tried to persuade him to stay. 

She had argued, begged and cried “Sasuke, you have so much here! Your family loves you, I love you! Please stay!” And Sasuke had thanked her, made like he was going to hug her and then instead he had knocked her out. 

When she came to it was the morning after, she was so cold, she had a raging headache, she was dizzy and she was being carried by a giant in a cloak and mask. She couldn't help the pathetic whimper she let out. 

“Shhh pinky-chan" The anbu said calmly “We’re going to the hospital, what happened to you anyway?” Dread flooded her veins as she remembered ”Sasuke-kun.. Uchiha Sasuke left to join Orochimaru” She sobbed, and the Anbu stopped walking “....” “Right, new plan, we’re going to see the Jounin commander” And he held her tight and took off running at breakneck speed. Once there she gave her explanation, then she puked all over Shikakus floor and passed out again. 

After a failed attempt at retrieval (The Uchiha were not pleased) some planning and recovery, Naruto had left -with his new sensei- in search of Tsunade-sama. 

Sakura had seen neither hair nor hide of Kakashi.. Sensei(?) since her match, and any hopes she might have had for team 7 had quickly been dashed. She knew of course that the rebuilding of Konoha was a priority issue, but she was sure he could have found her if he had wanted to. As there really was no team 7 left to speak of any more, what with her being the only student left and Kakashi off doing.. Whatever it was he was doing, she was now considered a teamless genin.

She was really sad but also numb, and so, so disappointed. She would have cried, but she just didn’t have it in her somehow. There had been other things to cry about and she was all out of tears. 

The destruction and loss of lives during the incident now dubbed “The Konoha crush” had been horrendous. She mentally stuffed her feelings in a box, handed it over to Inner and went to the missions desk to get an assignment. Everywhere needed cleanups and repairs and all able-bodied ninja were to help. 

About a month later Naruto returned with Senju Tsunade in tow, she healed Rock Lee who had received devastating injuries during his fight with Gaara as well as other seriously injured. Afterwards she was inaugurated as the Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure no sato. 

\----

Hosigaki Kisame, also known as Anbu Turtle bowed respectfully in front of his new Hokage. “Tsunade-sama, thank you for seeing me on such short notice” 

Tsunade waved a hand dismissively, took a sip from her sake cup and responded “Please, remove your mask. It’s not every day that one gets the opportunity to speak to one of the former swordsmen of the Mist. What is this about, then?” 

Kisame removed his mask and stood straight “I would like to take on an apprentice” 

Tsunade steepled her fingers and looked at him intently, he was a master at kenjutsu, an apprentice would surely be an asset to the village. She knew there might be some protests from the council, but the man had proven himself trustworthy and SHE was the military dictator in this city, not those old coots thanks very much. 

“Do you have somebody in mind?” Asked Tsunade. 

“Yes I do, I would like to request Haruno Sakura” Answered Kisame. “She is inexperienced, but she seems to have a good head on her shoulders as well as an affinity for water. Her physique leaves much to be desired, but that’s a workable issue and she seems stubborn enough” 

Tsunade gave a noncommittal hum. “This is the girl from team 7? Have you spoken to her about this?" 

Kisame scratched the back of his neck “Ah, no Tsunade-sama. But I believe she might accept. I have been.. Watching her for some time” 

Tsunade raised an eyebrow and Kisame waved his hands frantically in surrender “N-Not like that! She was the one who found me in the land of waves, I’ve been keeping an eye on her is all!” 

Tsunade smiled. “I see. Anbu-Cat, could you please fetch one Haruno Sakura?” Said Anbu in the cat mask bowed and dissapeared. Kisame twitched slightly, they were doing this right now?! He wasn’t prepared! What was he gonna say?? Shit!


	4. Righting wrongs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introductions, Sakura tries to right some wrongs and the teacher student duo gets started

Kisame paced around the office while they waited. 

Within minutes the anbu returned with Haruno Sakura. She bowed to her Hokage and peered curiously at the other occupant of the room who was big.. And.. Blue.. Wait what? “Huh?” 

Sakura gaped at what she now recognized as the drowned man from Wave country. Inner appeared in her mindscape, also gaping, silently. 

Her shameless staring was interrupted by the Hokage. “Haruno Sakura, I would like you to officially meet Hoshigaki Kisame” The blue man, **Kisame** , she mentally corrected, grinned down at her and gave a nod in greeting. _“His teeth are so pointy”_ Inner crooned. Sakura shuffled on the spot “Um, hello” 

The Hokage gave what sounded like an amused cough. Was she drunk? “Kisame here has made an interesting request” She looked at him expectantly. 

“Ah, yes” he said. “Hokage-sama. Haruno Sakura, I would like you to consider becoming my apprentice” Stunned silence. “My main area of expertise is kenjutsu, but I also excel in ninjutsu, hand to hand combat and uh, other things..” He scratched the side of his face. 

The Hokage rolled her eyes. “He’s an S-ranked flee-on-sight ninja, you would be lucky to have him teaching you.” Sakura was dumbstruck, he wanted to train her? She was back to staring at him again, he was very intimidating but she found she just couldn’t look away. 

“Why? I-I mean thank you Hoshigaki-san" She bowed, internally she was experiencing a mild freak out. Was she expected to accept? Did she have a choice?! She hadn’t expetcted this, what did one do when ones Hokage approached one with a new tutor?! _“Outer, get a hold of yourself!”_ Inner mentally slapped her and she looked back up, yes. “I-I would be honored” 

Kisames grin softened in to a smile. “Call me Kisame, kid. And you don’t have to decide right away. How about this, meet me for lunch the day after tomorrow and we’ll talk a bit. And then I’ll give you some time to think and you give me your answer. Sound ok?” 

He was giving her time to think, she was so relieved! “Yes, thank you Ho.. Er, Kisame-san" He nodded at her. “Well then, meet me at Yakiniku-Q at 11.30 in two days” They both stood there awkwardly and looked at eachother for about 30 seconds before Tsunade shooed them out “Lovely, you two seem like you’ll get along swimmingly” She chortled. ”Now get out of my office I’ve got shit to do” 

Sakura found herself heading over to Ino’s place the very next day, she was desperate to talk to her friend. They had never truly been enemies despite what things looked like, but they had stopped being close friends since they were rivals competing for the love of Sasuke-kun. Sasuke.. It left a bad taste in her mouth, even though she was still crushing on him somehow. 

She knocked on the Yamanakas door, Ino opened. “...Forehead? What are you doing here? Come to rub it in my face that you beat me?” Sakura looked at the ground. “Ino.. No.. I was hoping we could maybe talk a bit? Can.. can I come in?” Ino seemed to think it over, but then she opened the door wider and stepped to the side to let Sakura in. 

The conversation was awkward and stilted at first, but after Sakura timidly apologized Ino warmed up considerably. They lamented her scars, Ino had been shocked to see them even though she knew Sakura had been injured. “Well, theres always make-up right?” Sakura heaved a sigh “Yeah, or I could just get bangs” This line of conversation naturally led them on to the subject of boys and then to Sasuke-kun. 

“So” Said Ino. “That happened huh, Sasuke-kun up and left” 

Sakura heaved a sigh “Yeah. I think that seal had something to do with it. I mean, he was kind of discontent with things before too but afterwards he was just.. He didn’t seem like he was all the way there, you know?” 

Ino nodded. “Is that why you’re here though? Because Sasuke is gone and I’m not competition anymore?” Sakura shook her head “No. I’ve missed you, Ino. I guess I just realized how stupid I was back then. I don’t know how I feel about Sasuke-kun.. But I’ve really missed you” 

Ino smiled “I’ve missed you too, Sakura.” “...” “What’s the plan now then? Sasuke and Naruto are gone and I heard that Sensei of yours is running himself ragged elsewhere –Oh don’t look at me like that of course I know. You know dad’s a horrible gossip, him and Shikaku are like a pair of old ladies” 

Sakura gave a snort of laugh at that. “Ah, well someone offered me an apprenticeship today” And she proceeded to tell Ino about what had happened in the Hokages office” 

Half an hour later found Ino and Sakura in the Yamanaka clan library. “If he’s an S-rank ninja he’s in the bingo-book for sure” Ino turned another page and jumped up “AH! That’s him?!” Sakura peered at the page “Yep that’s the guy. Hoshigaki Kisame. Oh wow” 

“Forehead, you have got to accept. This guy is totally bad-ass even if he looks like a fish and has no sense for fashion. Also, what other options do you have? Are you gonna join the Genin corps? Do D and C-rank missions for the rest of your life?” 

Sakura frowned, that was true. She wanted to become a strong kunoichi, not weed gardens and chase cats around. “Yeah, I’m meeting him for lunch tomorrow. I’m pretty nervous” Ino slung an arm around her shoulder “Eh you’ll be fine. Come on let’s go back to the house for ice-cream and gossip!” 

Bowls of ice cream in hand they started caching each other up on things they’d missed, after that the talk turned to the exam. Ino was baffled as to how she got ejected from Sakuras mind, she did know that it was possible but it was supposed to be extremely difficult. She had of course seen the black and white outlines that made up Inner Sakura. Sakura hadn’t really known what to say, and so had just tried to explain as best she could. 

“Inner Sakura, huh” said Ino. Sakura was clearly uncomfortable, and so Ino being the angel that she was decided to change the topic. 

“So” Ino said and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively “Who taught you the bondage jutsu?” Sakura drew a blank at that “The what now?” 

Ino rolled her eyes and smirked “The Shibari illusion, apparently that jutsu of yours is frequently used in bondage among ninjas, you know, the sexy kind” She paused for dramatic effect. “You should have heard dad ranting about it to Shikaku-Oji” 

“No” said Sakura. “Yes “ Said Ino with a shit-eating grin. 

Sakura paled, then went beet red and wailed “Oh my god I’m an accidental pervert!” 

They ate all the ice-cream. 

\---- 

After her morning training the following day she went home to shower and then she was off to Yakinuku-Q. She thought some of the people she passed gave her weird looks, Kisame met her outside and led her to a table where plates of meat, vegetables, sauces and even some seafood were standing ready. “I already ordered, I got a little of everything so just take what you want. I eat a lot so there’s probably gonna be more coming as well” 

Sakura nodded before she quietly sat down. Kisame immediately started placing things on the grill in the center of the table and Sakura followed his example. He looked on with some concern as she nibbled on her measly portion. Oh well, they would get to that later. They talked a bit about this and that, what kinds of things they liked to do on their spare time and so on. After a pleasant meal they got down to business. 

“I expect you want to know a bit more about what we would be doing if you became my apprentice” Sakura nodded in response. 

“I’ll obviously train you in what I know of the ninja arts and life, my main specialty is kenjutsu as you know. The goal is for you to become a ninja in your own right in time. I’ll tell you now though that it will be hard work and I will expect you to suck it up and do the work.” He paused to eat a bit. “I will also expect you to train in multiple aspects of the ninja lifestyle even if there will be a higher focus on some areas. I’m very versatile myself and I take a wide variety of missions which you will be expected to do also. We will cover all the basic areas and more and you WILL become a well rounded and competent shinobi.” 

Sakura nodded and Kisame went on. “I’m very honest, some will say blunt or rude but I think it’s just better to be up front. If I become your sensei, I expect you to be honest with me as well.” He paused for emphasis. “Training will be harsh and we’re gonna be on missions where unpleasant things will sometimes happen, if you don’t talk to me frankly I won’t know how you are.” 

He scratched the back of his head a little sheepishly “I’ve also never had a genin before, but I’ll do my best and I’ll protect you with my life” 

Sakura had a small, sad smile on her face. She was thankful for this chance, really, but some part of her had hoped Kakashi-sensei would come through and take her back. Inner murmured encouragements and helped her straightened her spine. She tried to brush off the lingering sadness and express determination. She stood up, ramrod straight, and bowed deeply “Please accept me as your apprentice, Kisame-san" 

Kisame gave her a slightly dubious look “I would love to have you Pinky-chan, but you get the weekend to think this over. If you still feel the same way come Monday morning then we’ll get started right away. Meet me by the village gates at 08.00 sharp, pack for survival if you’re in and we'll be off to training ground zero” Sakura promised that she would give what he had said serious thought and then they went their separate ways. 

\----

It was Monday, and Sakura was heading towards the gates as instructed -Nervous but determined. She had packed and repacked her bag and her pouches, she hoped she was ready for whatever it was Kisame-Sensei had planned for them. He hadn't said how long they would be gone for.

He grinned when he caught sight of her. “Good morning, I guess this means we’re on then?” Sakura gave a wide smile too “Yes, I look forward to working under you, Kisame-Sensei!" Kisame hoisted up his own backpack and started walking. “Alright, we’re off!” 

Sakura scrambled to follow, he was fast! They walked for two hours before they arrived at the gates to the training ground. “Huh, what is this place? Why is there a giant fence?” She peered at the numerous signs that dotted the fence, most of them said “No entry” and “Danger” She thought back to the forest of death and suppressed a shiver. 

“This is as you know, Training ground zero. It was formerly used as grounds for the Chunin exams, but because it’s developed a rather unique, ah.. Fauna? It’s a bit on the dangerous side so it’s been turned in to a wildlife preserve of sorts. We’re gonna be camping and training in here for a few weeks, get to know each other a bit before we have to start running missions” 

Sakura paled “Unique.. Fauna? Unique how?” Kisame waved a hand back at her as thought it was no issue “Flesh eating plants, giant bugs, big animals, smart animals, nin-animals, other stuff. We’ll be fine” 

After another hour on foot they stopped in a large clearing. “Wow” Breathed Sakura “It’s beautiful” It was a large clearing in the middle of the woods with a small lake that held a big cliff-rock-thing in the center of the water. 

“There is a decent sized cave in that rock, we’re gonna be making camp there for security reasons” Kisame pointed to the rock in the lake. “We don’t want to be in the open clearing at night, nor do we want to be in the forest. Let’s get settled, find us something to eat and have another chat” 

They water-walked over to the cave and dropped off their things, Sakura went and gathered wood for a fire and got it started - and Kisame went to find something to cook for dinner. He returned in no time at all with two pheasants which he promptly plucked, gutted and started roasting over the fire. 

The birds were going to need some time to cook, so he pulled out some ration bars for lunch. “Alright pinky-chan" Inner bristled at the nickname. "Before we do anything more there are a couple of things we have to talk about” This time he was not smiling. 

“Let’s start with why you don't eat properly” Sakura blinked, huh? “I uh, I diet a bit? I’m a kunoichi, and I want to look my best” (For Sasuke-kun, she didn’t say but she thought it) 

Kisame frowned. “Right” he said in a flat voice. “That stops today. You’re underweight and malnourished and there's hardly any muscle on you. Kunoichi, you’re a goddamn ninja. We will get to specialized kunoichi training later on, but regardless you’re going to eat and train like anyone else not wishing for an early death. Got it?” There was a beat of silence before Sakura nodded mutely, and Kisame went on. 

“We’re also going to have to change your wardrobe before we start running missions, and you have to do something with your hair. You’re pink and I’m blue, but unlike you I blend with my surroundings somewhat because I wear muted clothing which provides some camouflage. “ He gestured to himself. He had opted to wear standard jounin blues and a somewhat modified flak-jacket, his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and he wore black fingerless leather gloves and black mid leg height ninja-sandals. 

He then gestured at her. “You, my little apprentice, currently stick out like a shining red cherry on a sundae and that’s very dangerous at your level” Sakura looked down shamefaced, she had never even considered that sticking out might not be a great idea as a ninja and she was supposedly smart! How had she not thought of this?! 

“Now, your hair. That is unfortunately something we’re going to have to deal with right now because it’s going to be a hindrance in our training” Oh god, he was going to chop off all her hair. Sakura made a little squeak. 

“It’s a bit of an awkward length at the moment so we can’t tie it up properly, but try this” He held out a very broad grey hair band. She took it. “It’ll serve a double purpose” He continued. “It’ll make sure your hair doesn’t slap you in the face or get in your eyes, and it’ll also break up the pink a bit” 

She removed her forehead-protector and put it on. It was weird not having any hair framing her face and her scars were on full display. She looked up timidly, she couldn’t quite manage a smile. 

“Good girl, that's the way. Now let’s do some exercises so I can properly gauge where you’re at training wise and where we should start” He stood up and walked across the water to the open field, Sakura followed. She tightened her fists, hopefully he wouldn't be too disappointed. 


	5. Birds, beavers and turncoats?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training ground zero is a death-trap and there are complications. Also, fluff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudos and comments, they make me so happy!
> 
> On a somewhat related note, I'm wondering if anyone could offer me some input on the formatting? Do you find the story ok to read the way things are? Or would it be better with more open space? Less space? Anything else?
> 
> As always I apologize for any errors, and thanks for reading :)

Sakura was going to die. They had started by doing laps around the clearing, they had ran till she collapsed. She got a 10 minute break and then they went on with several bouts of taijutsu where she got her ass handed to her repeatidly. Then target practice with kunai and shuriken, then on to chakra control and the academy basics. 

“So to conclude. Your stamina is terrible, your taijutsu is.. Also pretty bad to be honest“ He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. Aim and throwing, good aim but poor strength so it’s ineffective –And we’re going to have a serious talk about weapon care later on” He pointed a finger at her accusingly. “Chakra control, very good. Academy basics, passable. Tell me, what other jutsu do you know?” 

“Um, well the shunshin, the water pellet, ah the shibari genjutsu, and I’m not sure it’s actually a jutsu but I can cover things in water? I also did some research and I managed to make a very small amount of it dense” 

Kisame nodded. “So your chakra element is water then?” 

Little crickets could be heard in the silence following his question “Well, maybe? I don’t really know? I read a book but it didn’t mention that part” 

“Uh-huh, remind me to pick up some chakra paper when we get back to civilization” Kisame wondered privately what on earth team 7 had been doing since that day in Wave. 

“Also, as your current sensei it’s fallen to me to tell you that you are not getting promoted to chunin this time around.” Sakura blinked at him, she thought that had been a given since the exam turned out how it did. 

“You didn’t do terrible in your matches, but to be chunin requires a certain level of maturity and you’re supposed to be able to lead a team. Per now it’s considered that you lack those qualities” 

When she didn’t react other than to sag a bit more where she sat he clapped his hands. “Time for dinner!” They sat down and ate, the pheasant was delicious. 

Sakura was exhausted and upset about her apparantly poor condition and skills and ate in silence, was this why her team had written her off and abandoned her? 

She jumped when Kisame put his index finger under her chin. “Hey, chin up Pinky, most of us are bad at stuff when we start out. This is what training is for, ne?” She gave a wobbly smile despite herself and said “Yeah, thank you Sensei” 

\----

The rest of the day was spent gathering materials for makeshift bedding as well as crafting a kind of partial cover for the opening of the cave, collecting drinking-water from a nearby stream and making a proper fire-pit. 

When the sun started to set and it was time to retreat to the camp Kisame walked out on the water, made some handsigns and slammed his palm on the surface. Three large sharks appeared. 

“Come here” He gestured to Sakura who got up and walked over. “these are some of my summons, meet Ichiro, Saburo and Jiro” He pointed at each shark as he said their names. He put his hand on her back and pushed her forwards a bit. “This is my student, Sakura” 

Sakura bowed politely “Nice to meet you, please take care of me” The one called Ichiro replied in a gruff voice “We are pleased to meet you, pup” 

“They’ll be keeping watch at night in case something comes up close to the cave, if you hear something don’t go out on the water alone unless you’re ready to lose your limbs. You got me?” She nodded furiously “Y-yes sensei” 

He made some kind of hand sign at the sharks and they swam off and disappeared below the surface of the lake. “Alright Cherry-chan, time for us to get some shuteye, we’re gonna have an early start tomorrow” 

\---- 

Sakura yawned and stretched, today was her first day of training with her new sensei. Although she was mildly apprehensive she supposed it really couldn't be worse than her previous situation. The only way to go was up, right? 

She sat up and sniffed, fried fish? Sure enough, there were fish roasting over the fire, and there was Kisame-sensei. “Good morning” 

“Good morning” he said and stuck a fish on a stick in her face. 

“So I thought we’d start the day with some stretches and beginners kata for kenjutsu” Mouth full of fish she inclined her head to indicate she was listening. He took out a scroll from his backpack, opened it up and with a quick touch two bokken appeared. 

After breakfast and stretches, he handed her a bokken and showed her the movements for the first kata. Then he picked his own up and did them in tandem with her. 

By the time he deemed them done for now Sakuras muscles were screaming. The movements themselves hadn't been too difficult but holding the wooden sword and having to get the jabs and swipes right made it so much harder. It was amazing how heavy a length of wood could feel. 

Lunch was ration bars again, ugh. 

After lunch Kisame chewed her up over the state of her weapons. “Have you sharpened these at all?! They’re in a terrible state!” He tossed a whetstone and a vial of oil at her head, she caught the stone but missed the vial. 

“Ouch!” She sent him a glare while rubbing at her forehead. “I never thought about it. We learnt about it at the academy but then I just.. Didn’t do it” 

Kisame tskd in annoyance. “A well kept weapon could mean the difference between life and death for you, get to it!” She hunched at this and mumbled “Yes sensei” at the ground as she picked up the oil and got started on her task. 

\---- 

There were so many things to learn! They had set up a schedule of sorts, there was all the combat related training but then there was also lessons on physiology, more advanced first aid, medicinal herbs, stealth and more. They would also go hunting and gathering together every few days. 

So far they had stayed in the clearing working mostly on strength and kata, and Kisame had started her on more advanced water walking. Well, water acrobatics was a more accurate term. This was obviously a useful skill for shinobi, but it had the added benefits of strengthening her chakra control as well as draining her chakra stores. It made her feel like absolute crap, but draining her stores would supposedly cause them to grow. 

“Some people call me the tailed chakra beast without a tail you know, can’t have my student have tiny chakra stores”

Sakura tilted her head “What’s a tailed chakra beast sensei?” Kisame cursed internally “Uh, we’ll cover that at a later lesson” 

Kisame had also taken to throwing random items at her in mid training to “Hone your reflexes, tiny-chan" And their training was interrupted at least once a day by various forms of wildlife that more often than not tried to maul and/or throttle them. 

Sakura groaned and dabbed disinfectant at the scrapes she could reach. “What the hell sensei?” Kisame coughed to cover his laugh, it didn’t really work. “That was Dachō-sama, he’s a bit of a character. You should feel honored that the great ninja Ostridge came here to seek you out” 

Inner flipped him the bird “Yes, honored” Sakura said in a deadpan voice. Kisame gave up any pretense and started cackling outright. Sakura threw the disinfectant at him without thinking and immediately regretted it, she shouldn’t have done that. 

He just caught it however, walked over and poured some on the the back of her shoulder. He then ruffled the hair sticking out in the back of her headband. 

“Gear up pinky, we’re going in to the woods for some high-speed tree hopping” She looked at him incredulously. “What, now?!” 

Kisame grinned, she had become gradually more expressive and outspoken the longer they spent in each others company, she had even made snarky comments once or twice. “Yes now. Never know when we’ll have to outrun someone or run to someone in a haste. Chop chop” 

Off they went. Things were going reasonably well, only a few minor mishaps, until Sakura landed on a branch and the branch moved. 

It was a leg. There was a giant centipede hugging the tree and it was not pleased judging by its furiously clicking pincers. What was more, its many friends came crawling out of seemingly nowhere and they were surrounded. Sakura shrieked, hopped to the next tree and puller her bokken out of its holder on her back. Kisame joined her, “They’re hunting. They look pretty armored so go for the soft spots” He already had his katana in hand. “We’ll dodge what we can, cut and gut what we must and then hightail it out of here. This is a wildlife preserve after all” 

After the encounter with the giant centipedes they had both come out of the fight soaked in slimy bug innards, it was disgusting. Sakura had at some point used wire with explosive-tags, this was a good idea but she had maybe panicked a little and over did it with the charges. So sue her. 

When they got back to camp Kisame grabbed a bar of soap from his backpack, went to the edge of the water and promptly started stripping, leaving his clothes in a pile on a rock. 

“W-wh-what are you doing?!” Shrieked Sakura and held her hands in front of her eyes. Kisame looked baffled for a second before he went back to undressing “I’m going to wash myself, then my clothes and my sword. And you’re going to wash as well.” He waded in to the water, sat down and started scrubbing his hair. “Splashing some water on ourselves is all well and good but it just ain’t gonna cut it today” 

When nothing had happened on Sakuras end after a bit, he turned in her direction. Sakura was scarlet faced and standing still as a statue. “Ah, modesty eh? Don’t worry it’ll pass” He stood up and walked towards her, she got the full frontal view, squeaked and turned around hastily. 

Kisame bent down and grabbed her ankle, and then she was flying over the pond. There was a huge splash and two seconds later Sakura appeared, spitting and coughing. Kisame laughed loudly. “You! You jerk!” She waved her fist angrily at him. 

He smiled and sighed. “Look, we have to bathe alright? You wear bindings don’t you? Underwear too probably?” 

“Of course I do!” she snapped and gave him a death glare. She gave another squeak and looked away. 

“So take off your other clothes and get in the water before you take those off. Give them a wash and put them back on if you must. I promise I’ll keep my eyes semi-averted whatever you decide on, but you will bathe and you won’t be leaving my immediate vicinity” 

Inner was sniggering and whispering that perhaps she should send him another death glare **Shut up!** She mentally hissed at Inner. 

Sakura crossed her arms “Fine” She huffed and stomped back out of the water. She ended up taking his advice about the undies, she had to admit once she was in the water that it was really nice. She sighed contentedly. 

Once they were clean and dry Kisame-sensei launched a lecture on physiology, he had brought charts and everything. Muscles, tendons, internal organs, the circulatory system -and to some extent nerves, were all important for a kenjutsu user to know. “When you need to kill a person you should obviously know where the most effective strike-points are. Sometimes however, you’re gonna find yourself in situations where you need to immobilize and/or maim but not kill” Sakura sat at attention soaking up his words like a sponge. Some people had thought of her as a teachers pet, but really she just loved to learn new things. She was a little overwhelmed, who knew cutting people with swords was science as well as an artform?

\---- 

Time moved in strange ways when training day in and day out away from everyone else, she hadn’t been counting the days and she honestly didn’t know how long they’d been there but it must have been weeks –She’d made a mental note to do count days going forward. 

“Thrust!” “Right horizontal cut!” “waist to shoulder cut!” “Vertical downward head-cut!” Kisame shouted out orders and Sakura swung her bokken again and again. Her palms and fingers were covered in blisters and her arms felt like jello. 

“Well done Pinky. Go rinse your hands, I have a surprise for you and then after I’ll help with the ointment and gauze” Sakura gave him a puzzled look but dragged her tired self to the waters edge to do as he said 

When she returned he handed her a small box and led her over to a large hole in the ground in the back of their cave that definetly hadn’t been there before.

Kisame made a hand-sign “Water release: Hot water stream” A jet of steaming water appeared from thin air and filled the hole in the ground. “Open the box” He said. Sakura opened it and the wonderful scent of peyonies wafter out at her.

Bathsalts and a hot bath, for her? She could have cried with happiness. 

“Happy 14th birthday, I’ll be over by the entrance keeping guard, with my back turned. Just holler if the water gets too cold and I’ll see what I can do” Her birthday.. She hadn’t thought of it in all the mess and the events that had transpired since the start of the chunin exam. “You know my birthday” She mumbled, she walked up to him and gave him a half-hug, he patted her on the head a bit and left her to it. “Thank you sensei” He waved a hand back at her in acknowledgement. 

It was bliss, the pit even had a flat something that she could sit on. She sighed lazily and so did Inner _”Outer, we have to keep this one even if he is a sadistic slavedriver”_ **Yeah, huh, can you feel the water? How does that work** _”I’m you, idiot. I’m in the water”_ Sakura was too tired to think about this just now, she yawned widely. **Let’s revisit this conversation later sometime ok?**

Sakuras fingers were starting to prune and her mind was drifting, hmh, she should probably get out soon. “Huh, so it’s been a year since we met, kind of” She thought out loud. “Yeah” Came the reply from the opening of the cave. “How did you not drown anyway, you must have been floating around for a while” Kisame half turned his face and pointed to his upper cheek “Gills” 

Sakura blinked, feeling less tired ”Seriously? You have actual working gills” 

“Yeah” He said with laughter in his voice. “Chakra does weird things sometimes and a lot of shinobi have physical quirks. I’ll show you sometime” 

“But, you also breathe on land? You have lungs AND gills?” There was a chuckle “Yep, it’s all interconnected, there are some pretty interesting diagrams of it somewhere in Kiri” 

That seemed to be all he felt like sharing on the matter for now and Sakura didn’t want to pry too much. She leaned back and soaked until the water started to cool, she didn’t take him up on the offer to reheat it. He had left a towel by the “tub”. She was so warm and tired after her bath that she practically sleep-walked to her bed-roll and only dimly registered Kisame-sensei tending to her hands before she drifted off to sleep. 

\---- 

They had advanced to light sparring, she had absolutely no chance in hell and even though she had learned to block real quick and he was taking it slow she was black and blue all over all the time. “Starting to look like me a bit, Pinky-chan!” He laughed at his own wits and swung his bokken at her again. 

Dachō-sama had come back several times for rematches, and Bībā-sama –A huge beaver with a terrible temper who proclaimed himself a kenjutsu-master- had also challenged her to a fight. He had basically fought with his butt as his blade and had still given Sakura a run for her money. Kisame had laughed so hard she was surprised he hadn’t puked or passed out from lack of oxygen. “A-ha, are you ah-ahlright there?” He managed to gasp out between bouts of laughter. Sakura scowled and made a rude hand gesture. “Kehehehhah such a sweet girl” He wiped at the corners of his eyes and ruffled her hair. She tried halfheartedly to swat his hand away. 

“Alright, time to get that water churning” He paused looking thoughtful “Ichiro and Jiro are going to be joining us for water training today as well” She had advanced from water acrobatics on the surface to shaping water in to spikes and medium sized floating blobs. It was difficult and even with her control it drained her reserves rather quickly. There had been more downsides to her poor eating habits than she could have imagined, but she was improving. 

She walked out on the water “Ichiro and Jiro? What for?” The abnormally large bullsharks broke the surface and bopped their snouts against her leg. “Extra distractions” The sharks bared their many rows of teeth in some mockery of a smile. Sakura jumped away from them immediately and made balls of floating water which she lobbed at them after dodging whenever they would come at her. Kisame carried her back to camp that day. 

“We’ll be going back to Konoha tomorrow” He looked a bit ruffled, had he been in the water too? “Over all I’m very pleased with our trip, you’ve done well" Sakuras cheeks pinked slightly. “Thank you sensei” 

Kisame was adding the finishing touches to their stew. “We should get some time off, a few days probably, and then we’re gonna start running missions” Sakura gave a distracted grunt to indicate she was listening, she was trying her best to mend what was left of her last quipao. It had already been patched and sown countless times but training with the shark brothers had left it in tatters. A piece of fabric hit her in the face “Give it up pinky, that thing is not salvagable. It was hideous anyway” Sakura glared at Kisame, picked up the large shirt he had thrown at her and pulled it on with a scowl. _RUDE!_ “rude” Sakura ecchoed. 

“Uh-huh, I’m the rude one” 

\---- 

As planned they set out for Konoha the next day. The journey back was uneventful and it felt like they reached the gates in no time at all. The two chunin manning the guard booth were staring wide-eyed at them, Sakura stared right back –they looked familiar. _"It’s those proctors from the exams, the ones with the genjutsu, remember?”_ **Oh yeah**

They showed them their ID and were let in, Sakura could feel their stares prickling at the back of her neck. “Huh, I guess I must be pretty ratty looking” She tugged at her borrowed shirt self-conciously, she had opted to tie it up a bit but it was obviously not her size, her leggings and sandals were in bad shape and she had scrapes and bruises too she supposed. “Nah” Chimed in Kisame. “It’s me, I haven’t really been out in the public much since I came here. And I have a bit of a reputation you know.. ... Hmh, I should probably socialize more with my fellow tree-hugging ninja” 

They walked over to Sakuras house first, Kisame put his hand on her shoulder “I’ll be going then. Your parents were notified of the change in sensei of course and I would like to meet them but not right now.” Sakura thought that was probably a good idea, she didn’t know how her parents would react to their only daughter looking like she did, and Kisame-senseis appearance was a little, ah, unnerving as well. Her parents were both high level Chunin though so she hoped it would be ok. “They’ll probably want to invite you for tea, I remember they did that when Kakashi-san was appointed my sensei..” 

“Sounds good. Here” He produced a note and a pen from seemingly nowhere and wrote something down. “This is my address, just let me know when might be a good time. I’ll be in touch soon anyway if I don’t hear from you, we have some shopping to do before we start missions” She took the note and between one blink and the next he was gone. 

She tried the door, it was locked. Not a big surprise really, her parents didn’t know she would be back today and like most ninja they were assigned missions. She left her pack in her room, got undressed and headed straight for the bathroom for a long long shower. After her shower she studied herself in the mirror, she had started to fill out a bit more and she could see some beginnings of muscle contour. She was definitely more feminine looking even with the muscle, dieting... Had seemed like a good idea at the time. She wondered vaguely if Sasuke-kun even liked skinny girls. He never gave any of them a second look. 

She put on some pants and a tank-top, brushed her hair back, put on her hairband and gathered what little hair she could manage in a low ponytail. She was about to pick up her wallet and ventured out to find something to eat when her doorbell rang. It was Ino. “Heyy welcome ho–wow you look, huh? Really beat up and your boobs are bigger? What the heck have you been up to?!” 

“Hey Ino” Sakura smiled. “I’ve been training with Kisame-sensei, how did you know I was home? I only just got out of the shower” Ino waved a hand dissmissively “Dad told me, come on we’re going for lunch” She pulled Sakura out and dragged her along. Neither noticed the anbu following them.


	6. Troublesome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura gets a make-over, Tenzo makes an appearance and Shikaku has headaches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, as always thank you for any kudos and comments <3 I'll be updating the tags a bit today or tomorrow probably.

Kisame had made sure Ino and the others had arrived before he headed to his place. It looked almost like it had before, but there were subtle differences. A book in the wrong order on the bookshelf, a scuff in the little patch of dust just inside of the entrance to his bedroom. He showered and dressed in clean whole clothes, donned his katana and his foreheadprotector, checked that he still had his weapon-scrolls and left his apartment via shunshin to a nearby alley. He set a course straight for the administrative building where the Jounin commander’s office was located. 

He knocked. “Enter” Nara Shikaku sat leaned forward with his elbows on his desk, his head resting on his steepled fingers. His eyes were half-lidded but his gaze was sharp, he reached under his desk and activated his privacy seals. “You were away quite a while. How was your trip?” 

Kisame frowned “We had company” He did some handsigns “Water release: watersphere” then he summoned Saburo inside the water. “One is in here, he should still be alive” He put his hand in the water and patted the large shark. “The other three are in here” He handed Shikaku a body scroll. 

Shikaku took it “Does the girl know?” he rubbed his forehead, what a mess. “No, they tried to get at me during her water training. Utter idiots” Kisame pulled up a chair and sat down. “I left her at her house after that blondie and her clan friends arrived. I assumed it was your doing?” Shikaku gave one nod. “Theres also an anbu, virtually undetectable” 

Good, he had done the right thing confiding in them then. “So, how have things been while we’ve been away?” 

Shikakus mouth was a thin line. “Inoichi and I have been going through old records, it seems he was planning something to do with the Uchiha when he was shut down, though we haven’t been able to find out what exactly” A moment of silence passed. 

“Who are the people working for him though? I would think someone would notice if a mass of shinobi up and disappeared, right?” 

Shikakus mouth seemed to thin even more. "We're not sure. Ibiki is following some leads, but it's difficult. There are very few actual records from when Root was operative WITH permission, needless to say any information we find now is hard earned. We have to be discrete as well, if this is who we think it is then he could stir up a lot of muck" 

Kisame nodded. He had been approached about 6 months earlier by what he had first thought to be anbu, but he himself was in anbu at the time and did not recognize the operatives. When their apparent captain had started talking about the good of Konoha, and the roots of Konoha working for the betterment of the village he had felt cold. 

Root had been a bit of an open secret during the third ninja war, or more like a kind of myth maybe. There had been rumors of these masked Konoha operatives taking part in some very nasty operations, and it was always more difficult than one might think to completely cover things up all the time. 

He had made his excuses and gotten the hell out of there, he couldn’t afford to get mixed up in anything weird he was still on probation so to speak. Most conveniently he had to have sessions with Yamanaka Inoichi regularly as part of said probation, and he wasted no time asking about Root. Inoichi had gotten Shikaku involved and things had evolved from there. “I assume the Hokage knows?” 

“Yes, she’s pissed as all hell” Shikaku grumbled from his now slouched position “Threw her desk through one of the outer walls of her office. The council have been getting on her nerves even before this, they’re displeased about your choice of apprentice and they apparently had a collective conniption when they learned you had left the village” 

Kisame rolled his eyes “Of course they did” 

They had decided that it would be best for him to disappear for a while to try and prevent any more immediate incidents after the.. Encounter. He hadn’t turned them down per-se but they were probably not happy. 

He had been unsure at the time whether or not they knew of his mostly one-sided connection with Sakura, but he hadn’t been prepared to take any chances. He had been planning to leave anbu and offer her an apprenticeship at some point anyway, this had simply speeded things up a bit. 

“Good good” Kisame sighed “What now then? I would have preferred to stay in the village a bit, maybe do some D-ranks, let her rest up a bit and socialize you know ... Do we know where her parents are?” 

Shikaku grunted an affirmative. “Mission to tea country, they should be back in a few days time. We’re arranging an, ah, minor incident at their house. Inoichi will offer temporary lodgings in the Yamanaka clan compound” He grabbed a thermos and poured them some coffee. “We think it’s better to pretend nothings wrong for now, Tsunades attention and fury should hopefully deter any more immediate action, so just stay in the village and do what you normally would” He pushed a cup towards Kisame who took it. “Alright, sounds like a plan. What are you going to do with these asshats” He gestured to the scroll and the shark. 

“We’re gonna take them down to T&I. If we can find out who they are that might get us somewhere. Training ground zero was a good pick, with any luck it might be assumed that they perished to the wildlife. They will probably send out a search party, but it is a big area” The last of the coffee was drained. 

Kisame set his cup down and got to his feet “I’ll be going then. You’ll let me know if theres anything you need from me, yeah?” ... “Yeah” Said Shikau. “If anything happens on your end, let us know too. Here” He handed Kisame a tiny furry something. “It’s a deer mouse” Shikakus mouth twitched in an aborted smile. “For communication purposes” Kisame stuffed the ball of fur in a pocket and left the office. 

\---- 

Anbu cat was having a very stressful day. He had been called to the Hokages office a few days prior to be told that he was to keep watch over one Haruno Sakura and keep her safe when she returned to the village. He was hiding inside a nearby tree when she arrived at her house with her sensei. The decidedly wrong sensei. He knew of course that his senpai had been busy, but this was.. Wrong. 

But the most wrongest thing, was the Root operative he had glimpsed, also watching the house. Did Kakashi know about this? Any of this?! He still had that seal on his tongue, would he even be able to tell him? Or anyone? Someone had to know already since he was here he supposed. He phased through trees and walls and stalls as he followed team 10 and Haruno Sakura all the way to Yakiniku-q, he would keep her safe from the shadows if he could. 

Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were oblivious to any extra guests. They had a nice meal, though Shikamaru and Choji kept giving her looks now and then. She supposed that was ok, they weren’t able to get much in word-wise as Ino kept up a near constant stream of back and forth talk with Sakura. Shikamaru seemed mildly interested, Choji a little apprehensive. 

“Mou, so you have this super scary badass sensei and we’re stuck with Asuma” Ino pouted. Shikamaru opened his mouth to say something from where he was resting his head on their table, but Ino cut him of “Yes yes Shikamaru, he lets you play Go and nap. You’re both lazy old men. Honestly” Shikamaru muttered something that might have been “troublesome women” Sakura turned his way and gave a saccharine smile that made every hair on his body stand on end. “What was that?” 

Shikamaru sat up and leaned away from her slightly “Nah-uh, nothing” Well, that was new. He gave her an assessing look before he leaned back and slouched in his seat. 

Sakura turned back to Ino “He’s kind of scary and a hardass but he is pretty awesome and he’s really smart, I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere, you know?” Ino nodded seriously. “I’m glad” 

Choji had just polished off the last of the food. Ino put her hand on Sakuras shoulder. 

“Come on forehead-girl, let’s go to your place for some girl-talk” ... “Sure" It was a nice day, perfect for lounging in the back yard with her friend. Choji and Shikamaru went with them, she supposed her house was on their way home anyway. 

As they walked up the pathway to the Haruno residence, the minor incident announced its presence. “Augh. What is that?” Ino held both her hands over her nose. Sakura opened her front door, Ino took some steps backwards and gagged. It really stunk, and water was dripping from the ceiling. “Uuh, I’m pretty sure that's sewage” Shikamaru mumbled though the hands he had clapped over his lower face. 

“What?! No!” Sakura ran up the wall to the second story and peered through the tiny window of the bathroom. Sure enough the toilet was overflowing, it had spread all over the bathroom and in to the hallway beyond and oh god that was nasty. Centipede guts stunk, but knowing this came from humans made it nastier. Sakura tried not to think too hard of Kisame-senseis latest anatomy lesson on bowels, she gave a shudder. Yean no she was not going in there, she jumped back down. 

“I don’t know what to do with this” She said ina high pitch voice “Mom and dad are on a mission, I guess I have to find a plumber?” Ino tugged at Sakuras sleeve “Come on, lock the door and we’ll go tell dad. He’ll find someone” 

Yamanaka Inoichi was appropritely disgusted by the state of the house, he called in a plumber who promptly announced it uninhabitable. “You’ll come stay with us Sakura” He raised his hand to forestall any argument. “I insist. You’re Ino’s best friend. I’ll leave a note for your parents shall I? 

Sakura was almost speechless. “Uh, I.. Ok?” She shuffled on the spot a bit before walking up the wall again and heading for her bedroom window. Please let it not be in my bedroom please please. It had seeped in under the door a bit, but it wasn’t too too bad. She grabbed her backpack and stuffed some clothes and toiletries in it and got out as soon as she could. When she got back out they walked over to the Yamanaka compound. 

Sakuras parents returned the very next day. They were horrified to hear the full report on the house, apparently it had not only seeped in to the walls and ceilings but it had also ruined the electrical system. Inoichi most graciously offered them one of their fully furnished guest houses until their own was repaired, and her parents gladly accepted. 

\---- 

Sakura woke when something knocked on her window, she was so comfortable and completely rested. Ah, to sleep in a bed! She opened her eyes and focused on the knocking-something. A hawk? She rolled out of bed, opened the window and took the little note from the bird. It read: “Pinky, meet me at the missions assignment office after breakfast. We’re gonna be doing D-ranks" Sakura groaned and shuffled over to her new but almost empty closet, she could not do missions in her sweatpants and a t-shirt even if they were D-ranks. She ended up wearing too-tight leggings, a long light blue shirt and Inos spare ninja sandals. She bandaged her legs and put on her kunai and hip pouches. At least she looked a little ninja-y.. She tried a few stretches.. Yeah, no. She would have to shopping and soon. 

“D-ranks!” Kisame held his arms out wide and beamed at her as though this was a great treat. “Yay. D-ranks" Sakura deadpanned, causing Kisame –still smiling- to shove her in to the missions assignment room. She managed not to fall on her face but only just. 

“Team Kisame reporting for duty” They were met by smiling a chunin who handed them their first mission scroll. 

D-ranks with Kisame-sensei was nothing like what she expected. Firstly, no disasters! No paint all over anything, no smashed produce, no muck-covered civilians, no weeded vegetables no broken fences nothing. Secondly, he helped! They were tearing their way through the D-ranks (not literally, yay) She wouldn’t say it was enjoyable exactly, but it was kind of nice. 

Afternoons were spent training. First session Kisame had brought chakra paper. “Take this, hold it between two fingers and channel a small amount of chakra in to the paper” He handed it to Sakura who did as instructed. The paper turned soggy at once, no surprises there thought Kisame. Then after another heartbeat there was a loud sound like a click and a bright spark. Sakura shrieked and shook the soggy lump off her hand. Kisame was on her so fast she hadn’t seen him move. He was examining her hand, turning it this way and that. “Eh? It’s not supposed to do that. What did you do?” Sakura had no idea what she did “I just did what you said sensei” Inner? Inner shrugged _“No idea. Wasn’t me”_

“Some kind of lightning release..?” He thought out loud, then he cackled and clapped her on the shoulder so hard she had to take a step forward “Oh, you’re gonna be a real terror ” 

“Quit shoving me, uh, thank you?” Sakura thought that was probably a compliment but she wasn’t sure. 

"Alrighty, so we're gonna focus on water for now since that's also my main element and it won't electrocute us if we do it wrong. You've already done quite a bit of shape manipulation so I think it's time we focus some on the elemental manipulation itself. How much water were you able to make for the water pellet jutsu, and how chakra intensive would you say it was?" 

Sakura held up her hand and connected her thumb with her index-finger to indicate the size of the ball of water. "About this much, it was a lot of work and I felt the drain even if it was small" 

Kisame nodded. "You should find this easier with practice, you'll waste less chakra in the process and your stores are growing at a good rate as well. We're gonna use the mouth as a focal point today because it's the easiest" Sakura wrinkled her nose, she remembered the feeling of almost-water-vomit-but-not-quite. 

Kisame crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a knowing look "Try this. Mould the chakra in your core, bring it up in your mouth. You convert it to water in or just outside of your mouth, not in your stomach or throat. That's why you'll see a lot of ninjas holding a hand or fingers to their mouth. It's for focus." He made some hand-signs, his cheeks bulged and a torrent of water shot out from his mouth. Sakura focused, chakra up up up two fingers up and FOCUS. A small stream of water. Sakura did a fistpump "yes! Oh god that's so much better than what I did before, you know I almost puked on that sound genin in the exams" 

"I would have paid good money to see that you know, damn sound" 

\----

Many training sessions, D-ranks and some C-ranks later Sakura found herself on the way to the shopping district with Ino and Kisame in tow. They had both refused to let her go shopping by herself with the other. Kisame went straight for the mesh under armor and picked out a two-piece set, the pants ended mid calf and the shirt sleeves just below her elbows. “This never comes off, you hear me?” 

Ino picked out a green low-cut sleeveless kimono style blouse held closed by a broad dark blue Obi. Sakura found some pants she liked, they matched her obi and ended just below the knee where there was a tighter hem to keep them in place. She also picked out some black leather gloves and matching ninja boots with a smal heel. “Sakura, you look great!” Sakura laughed and did a twirl, she then looked to her sensei who gave her a grin and thumbs up. “Get a few different colors, we’ll probably be taking missions abroad sooner or later and the environments are going to differ. Also get a coat” They left the store laden with bags of clothes and gear. 

They took it all back to Sakura’s place and she immediately went to her room and got changed. When she came out Kisame cleared his throat awkwardly. “Uh, so I have something for you. I had thought to maybe wait a bit but I think you’re ready” Ino and Sakura both peered at him curiously. He turned his back to them and there was a tiny poof, when he turned their way again he was holding a dark brown leather harness and a wakizashi. He beckoned Sakura forwards, then he helped her put the harness on. It was beautiful and surprisingly soft, it had twin adjustable straps over her shoulders like a backpack would and it looked _so_ cool. He handed her the sword next, it had a plain grey scabbard, it looked well used but in good condition. She gently pulled out the blade, she didn’t know much about quality of blades but she was enthralled. 

“I probably still have every sword I ever owned, that one was one of my first swords. While it’s nothing fancy, it’s well made and a good starter sword” 

Sakura felt filled to the brim with joy and it was overflowing, she tried to sniffle discreetly but the tears were on so it was a moot point anyway. Damn it, why was she such a crybaby? She sheathed her blade and wiped at her eyes. She hugged Kisame who gave a little squeeze back, a slightly muffled “Thank you” came from where face met flak-jacket. 

After also receiving a hug Ino had announced that they were going out to celebrate “If this isn’t some kind of milestone then I don’t know what is. I’m bringing lazy-bones and chubby, Asuma will probably join us too. I’m going to round them up, meet you at The rusty kunai!" Kisame looked slightly offended at the name of the bar but otherwise agreed. 

“No live blades at the bar, you wanna keep the harness on?” Kisame questioned. She supposed it would look a bit silly walking around without the wakizashi and took it off, she still felt like she was a whole other level of ninja than yesterday. 

Since they were ready to go they walked over to the bar and found a table that would seat them all, they also ordered dango and sake. Kisame poured sake in their cups and handed one to Sakura. She looked at it, she knew of course that she had been allowed to drink ever since she graduated, she just never had. She took a tentative sip, it was sweet and warm “Oh, this is kind of nice” Kisame handed her a stick of dango, downed his own cup and poured himself another “Right? Just watch the amounts, doesn’t seem like it but it’s actually pretty potent” Sakura took another sip, she wondered if Ino had tried sake before.


	7. Life at sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ninjaverse really isn't all smiles and sunshine. 
> 
> On the upside, Kakashi makes an appearance -Kiri-nin makes him feel like he might break out in hives. 
> 
> Sakura makes some discoveries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for a bit of blood and violence.  
> Possible trigger warning for attempted rape.
> 
> It’s been brought to my attention that there are some weird things going on agewise so I thought I’d take a minute to clarify and apologize.  
> I have definitely messed with the timelines, especially the Kiri one I’ve completely hijacked that one and moved it and its people. 
> 
> It’s been a long time since I read the manga and here are the present time ages of the main people currently starring in the fic:  
> Kisame, Kakashi -around 27-28  
> Shisui is around 23-24, we haven’t seen much of Itachi yet but hes 20ish(?)  
> The rookie 9 are about 15-16 (Sakura was almost 14 by the time Kisame approached Tsunade about the apprenticeship)
> 
> This is where I imagine them at, you're all welcome to place your own ages on the characters too. I don't think I'll be doing birthdays for the most part, and I hope you all forgive my awkwardness writing passage of time. It's a learning process.
> 
> Thank you all for any feedback and comments <3

Hatake Kakashi was not spying, he wasn't. He was simply.. Going out with his friend. Yes. Next to him, Maito Gai had donned his fake mustache. 

He had returned from a mission and had gotten wind that his student had come through the village gates accompanied by the monster of the mist, and looking like she had been assaulted. Listening to rumors he had been able to piece together that the two of them had formed some kind of unit while he had been busy running back to back missions and avoiding his responsibilities. He was feeling.. He wasn't sure what he was feeling. He had immediately summoned Pakkun to sniff her out. 

His student and the blue giant were sat at a table, eating dumplings, drinking sake, and chatting like old friends? Just how long had they known each other? He eyed her new outfit. It was a good outfit, definitely a ninja outfit. 

She was still a ninja then. There was an uncomortalbe swooping feeling in hit gut. He had a hard time imagining how this had happened if he was honest, what exactly was she doing with this.. This kiri-nin?! 

He had of course realized he had neglected her training, had in fact done it on purpose hoping she would drop out. He had thought her unsuited to the shinobi lifestyle, just like Rin. Well no, she was even worse than Rin. Rin had at least made some effort in between the fawning. 

He had watched her like a hawk during her fight in the final exam, was she an imposter? He had choked on his spit when she had used the Shibari jutsu on her opponent, the other sensei had given him incredulous looks. He hadn't even bothered denying that he had taught it to her, nobody would ever believe him. 

After the matches and the Konoha crush he had once again shoved any thoughts of his lone student back in to the sakura-shaped box in the back of his mind. He had his duties to the village. She would be better off without him anyway he told himself. 

His musings were interrupted by the clearing of a throat. Team 10 had arrived, the teenagers had made their way over to Sakura but Asuma had stopped by his and Gais table. 

“You could go talk to her you know” 

Gai nodded sagely, Kakashi just glared at Asuma in answer. He caught Kisames eye through the opening between the panels that gave privacy to the customers. Kisame raised an eyebrow in question, Kakashi looked away hastily and pulled out Icha Icha Paradise. Nothing to see here. 

Kisame gave a one shouldered shrug and turned his attention back to his table. 

\---- 

It turned out that Ino was no novice at drinking sake, and Sakura watched with morbid fascination as Ino guzzled down cup after cup. She was a little tipsy herself but she had nothing on Ino who had started flirting and complimenting everyone and was currently giving out love advice. Shikamaru and Choji had escaped after Ino started getting handsy, but a number of other people had joined their table. 

“I mean, why dance around each other like this? Take her out to dinner, we all know the both of you fancy the other” Asuma was stuttering incomprehensibly, the proctor from the chunin exams –Genma- was guffawing loudly and leaning on a man with black feathery hair who was giggling. Kisame-sensei and a large man with a bandana on his head and scars on his face were arm wrestling 

Sakura kind of wanted to go home, she had eventually noticed Kakashi-san. Her headspace was filled with a confusing concoction of feelings, she wasn’t sure how it was possible to feel this resentful and angry with someone while at the same time also craving their attention so much. It was like wanting to run away and hide but being completely unable to. She wanted to pull her hair out and rage, or maybe hug him?! Inner was baring her teeth but seemed otherwise as paralyzed as Sakura. 

Ino had switched gears again and was currently coming on strong to the pale man with the black feather-hair, he seemed pretty receptive too. Sakura sighed, Kisame shoulderbumped her none too gently “You alright there?” Sakura slapped his bicep in mock retaliation “I’m fine, just.. I think I’ll just step outside for some fresh air” 

She got up and stepped out, the warm breeze felt nice. She eyed the building she had just left before climbing up on the ceiling and laying down on her back. She could still hear the hustle and bustle from the bar but this was peaceful. 

Kisame joined her not long after. “I could practically hear you brooding over here, whats with the mood?” She shifted her eyes to him “Just.. Thinking..” He waited her out. “About my..” She hesitated. “Uh, former team” There was a lump in her throat. 

“You miss them?” 

“I. Yeah” She scrunched up her nose “Why would I miss them, they practically wrote me off as some kind of lost cause and left me to the sharks” She gave a wet laugh, oh god, his bad humor was rubbing off on her. 

Kisame looked thoughtful. “I’m not sure it had much to do with you or your potential at all to be honest, those three had their own things going on judging by the talk of the town. It doesn’t excuse what happened of course” 

“Feeling the way i do makes me feel like an idiot, this makes no sense. ” Sakura rubbed at her forehead frustratedly. 

“You were a unit for a good while, anyone would have mixed feelings with things going the way they did” He rubbed his chin “Come on, I’ll walk you home. We should probably bring that friend of yours too if we can manage to detatch her from Shisui” 

They managed to pry Ino off of the enamored Uchiha after a few tries and Kisame slung her over his shoulder. Ino took this chance to slur many words of wisdom at Sakura and paw at Kisames rear which was just within reach the way she was hanging. 

\---- 

When Sakura went to see Ino the next day she expected to find an embarrassed and shamefaced Ino. This was not what happened. 

Sakura was dumbfounded to find Ino not even remotely embarrassed about the previous night “So, you mean to tell me this is a common thing? You’ve been drinking, kissing and groping guys? Since when?” 

“Uh, it’s been encouraged since we graduated or around that time. You mean to tell me you haven’t been doing these things?” Ino gave Sakura a concerned glance. 

“Encouraged by whom?” Sakura squeaked. She hadn’t heard anything about this, and she hadn’t had friends to go out with either. 

“Well, everyone? My parents, my sensei, my clan, fellow kunoichi? Ninja are sent on all kinds of missions. As kunoichi we’ll probably see our fair share of honeypot missions and we never know when that might happen. It’s also encouraged to help us cope with the lifestyle and potential future trauma, physical comfort, you know?” 

Great, another hole in her education apparently and she hadn’t had anyone around to help her realize. Fucking shit. Her parents were first generation ninja, of course they hadn’t thought about this. And she supposed Kisame-sensei was excused too, they had been busy with other things and now she thought about it he had actually mentioned kunoichi training. Huh. 

Ino interrupted her train of thought. “Hey, don’t worry. We’ll fix this. It’ll be fun” She threw back a painkiller, she was a bit hung over. Come on, lets get some dumplings I'm famished. 

\---- 

Later that day she once again found herself in the missions assignment room with sensei. He took the offered scroll and read through it. This time, instead of heading out directly, Kisame led her to a smaller room off the main hall and they had a seat. 

“This mission is part delivery and part escort, the escort mission ends when we reach the port in tea country, but the delivery is further inland” 

This was the first time they had a mission briefing before meeting at the gates, Sakura paid rapt attention. 

“Because of the sensitivity of the material we are delivering, this mission is classified as a high C-rank. We’ll be travelling undercover as civilians with the client and his entourage. They’re a mixed bunch so we should fit right in. 

We’re not expecting to have to fight ninja, but we may come across some on the way and we need to maintain cover. I’m a rather well known shinobi, but I’ll wear a disguise and as long as we’re under cover I want you to refer to me as “Ao”” 

“Now, we’ve started covering stealth a bit but this mission requires a different kind of stealth. Have you heard of chakra suppression before?” He questioned. 

“Well no” Sakura hesitated “ But I can imagine what it means. How though?” 

“This is actually a jutsu, but a lot of people learn to do it without handsigns after a while. You can try to cut down once you get a feel for what your chakra needs to do, this is also true for other jutsu by the way. 

This one operates similarly to a genjutsu but without any illusion, basically what it does is it forces small amounts of your chakra in to a pattern similar to what you would find in a civilian and it suppresses your core. With me so far?” 

“Yes, sensei” 

“Good. What you need to know before you use it is that it will keep running until it’s dispelled, and you’ll have a hard time using chakra for jutsu, genjutsu, waterwalking or anything else really. A simple kai will do the trick though, you disrupt the artificial flow. 

Your smaller core and good control should make this fairly easy for you. The handsigns are rat, hare, snake, rat, and you just want to add a small trickle of chakra. Ready to give it a try? ” 

Instead of answering, Sakura stood up and ran through the handsigns a few times. When she felt ready she did the handsigns again and added a tiny amount of chakra. The effect was instant, she felt completely off kilter. 

“My body feels so.. Slow and.. And wrong” 

Kisame gave a short laugh “Yeah. Sucks doesn’t it. Aren’t you glad you’re a ninja? Most of us start to augment our movements consciously or unconsciously with chakra” 

Sakura cast and dispelled the jutsu a few more times before Kisame deemed it good enough “Alright, go home and pack a bag for at least 3 weeks, dress like a civvy. Meet me at the gates at 06.00 tomorrow” He gave a grin and a salute and disappeared. 

Sakura went back to the Yamanaka clan compound and her house to get everything ready for the mission. 

\---- 

They met the client and the rest of his group by the village gates the next morning. He was a handsome man in his early twenties, long blonde hair and fancy clothes. 

Kisame wore nondescript clothes and a cloak with long sleeves, he had wrapped a scarf around the lower part of his face and he wore a straw hat. She couldn’t see any of him really which was the point she was sure. 

Sakura had gone for a plain long sleeved yukata, she wore her mesh armor underneath of course and had concealed weapons everywhere she could. 

Looking at everyone else she wished she too had thought to bring a hat, before she could finish that thought Kisame had placed a hat on her head. He winked at her and she answered with a smile. 

“Oh hello~” The client sing-songed. He took Sakuras hand and kissed it, she managed to refrain from yanking it back but just barely. “Ah, hello client-san" 

The client waved a manicured hand “Please darling, call me Aikawa-sama" Sakura was a bit taken aback but went with it. “Alright, Aikawa-sama. My name is Sakura and this is Ao, my sensei and team captain” She gestured to Kisame who tipped his hat in greeting. 

“My, you’re big aren’t you. Welcome welcome. Shall we get going, then? We have quite the journey ahead of us” 

“Yes” Replied Kisame. “Please lead the way Aikawa-sama, I’ll stay in the back as this is the best position to keep watch over the group while we travel” 

Off they went. Sakura stayed up front with the client. He was extremely chatty, he went on and on about his clothes, his mansions, his connections. This was only a C-rank, surely he couldn’t be that influential. Sakura wasn’t quite sure what to do with this but nodded and hmmed at what she thought might be appropriate times. By time they made camp for the night she felt like her ears might fall off. 

They ate well, the entourage was carrying all kinds of groceries in their large packs. When it was time to get the bedrolls out Aikawa let his servants prepare his bed, looked at Sakura and patted the ground next to where he had settled. Sakura looked to Kisame who shrugged, laid his bedroll out next to Aikawas and laid out Sakuras next to his. Aikawa gave a sniff of disapproval which was ignored. 

“You’re taking first watch” Kisame said. “I’m going to get some shut-eye, you’ll be guarding us from right next to me. Any sign of trouble, anything suspicious, you wake me up. If you start to feel like you might nod off, also wake me. Otherwise wake me in 3 hours time, ok?” 

“Yes sensei” 

Sakuras first watch was uneventful, but she was nervous and jittery the whole time and was spooked by the wind and small animals. She woke Kisame-sensei at the requested time and crawled in to her bedroll and promptly fell asleep. 

The next few days followed much the same pattern. Aikawa prattled on and on while Sakura tried to keep up with the small-talk. He had started asking her questions about herself every now and then, he kept laughing at odd times and he had tried to link his arm with hers a few times. Sakura put on a mask when this happened and laughed it away whilst creating some distance, Inner threatened violent death. 

She hadn’t been able to not notice him calling on more than one person for nightly activities thank you very much and just no. Every time this had happened it had been during her watch, Kisame had been there like a solid barrier but it was still highly uncomfortable. How sensei managed to sleep through all that loud moaning she had no idea. 

She wanted to ask him how to deal with this but it was impossible to get him on his own as one of them was always by the client. Ugh. 

\---- 

The trees were thinning, a sure sign that they were nearing the ocean. The port they were using was supposed to be just beyond Jofuku mountain which was visible in the distance. 

One minute she was pondering their location, the next she was blocking a knife with her kunai that she had hidden up her sleeve. 

She slashed at her opponents throat and was surprised to see it open as though it was made of butter, the spray of blood too took her completely by surprise. She reared back in shock and spat because her mouth had been open. Inner pulled her hair and shrieked _“DISGUSTING!!!”_

Then there was another person coming at the client and there was no time. She ducked a swipe of his bat and stepped hard on the inside of his knee, he went down with a sickening crunch from his leg and a yell of pain. Sakura punched him in the head with the business end of her kunai, she tried to yank it out but it was futile. She looked around frantically but here were no more enemies standing. 

Kisame had rounded up the rest, knocked them out and tied them up. Sakura watched the scene, it started to flicker as though she was watching an old movie. She staggered forwards a bit before her world tilted sideways, she fell to her knees and retched violently. 

When she was done hacking up everything she possibly could she sat back, she still felt awful and she was shaking like a leaf, she could still taste the blood. The thoght almost brought bile to her mouth again. Kisame put a grounding hand on her shoulder and offered her water. She rinsed her mouth and stuttered “S-sorry” 

Kisame rubbed the back of her neck “What for Pinky? You did great. The client is alive as is his entourage, the bandits are dead or incapacitated” 

She looked over at the client, he too was currently working on evacuating his stomach contents. Some of the servants were looking pretty green as well. 

“We’ll head a bit further up and make camp, we’ll get you cleaned up a bit and I’m sure our esteemed client needs a rest too after his exhausting battle” Kisame grabbed her by both shoulders and lifted her to her feet. 

They walked a short while and made camp, Sakura had never been so glad to get to wash herself and change her clothes in her life. Afterwards they sat down and Kisame offered her a rations bar, she wasn’t really feeling it but her stomach was empty so she took it. 

“Was this your first kill?” He knew it was, but it seemed better to ask anyway. 

“Yeah. I’m never opening my mouth during battle again. Oh god, what if he had some kind of disease?” The urge to vomit returned, she forced it down. “I don’t uh. I know ninja kill. I knew it would be messy, but I didn’t know, you know?” She rubbed at her face with both hands. “I don’t know how I feel” 

Kisame gave a gentle chuckle and scooted closer. “Don’t worry, we always get a medical check after missions when there’s action. If there’s anything they remove it, ninja-healing is nice like that. And if you get any feelings that’s ok, if you don’t that’s also ok” He put his arm over her shoulders, she sighed and leaned in. 

\---- 

The Ocean was beautiful, the only other time she’d seen it had been during their trip to Wave country with team 7 and she had been too busy watching Sasuke, being sad or being worried to really appreciate it then. She thought she could see a shark in the distance too, it made her smile. 

Aikawa was overjoyed and insisted that they board and leave right away “Finally! Look look there’s our boat! It has bathrooms, and bedrooms~” He gave Sakura an exaggerated wink. She clenched her fists inside her long sleeves and grit her teeth. She couldn’t wait to arrive at tea country. 

“Don’t kill the client” Kisame muttered under his breath as they walked up the ramp. Sakura and Inner preened at the knowledge that he knew they could, even if they wouldn’t. 

Sakura and Kisame bunked together, they didn’t get a room since they were still on guard duty but Sakura didn’t mind terribly –especially after the crew brought out futons and comforters. 

She was having a well earned breather, reading a book about various forms of genjutsu that Kisame had given her when she heard footsteps. 

Aikawa was smirking and sauntering her way, he stopped by her futon and opened his robe with the air of father christmas unveiling a present. Sakura was no stranger to male nudity after the long stint in training ground 0, but this was something else. He was naked and aroused. 

Her disgust with the man warred with her curiosity for a few seconds and that was all the time he needed to get on top of her. She started to push him off, he was bigger but she was a ninja even if she had no chakra. 

“Calm down Kunoichi, you know you want this” He panted. Then he put his lips on hers in a forceful kiss and Sakura kneed him in the balls. “SHANNARO!!! WHAT THE FUCK YOU NASTY PERVERT!” He scrambled back and to a half-standing position gasping for air, Sakura followed him up then punched him in the gut and he doubled over completely -perfectly timed for his face to meet with the knee she was thrusting upwards. “CHAAA!!” He fell to the deck with a howl of pain and clutching his face. She had very generously not gone for his windpipe, she was a saint. 

Kisame had emerged at some point from wherever he had been and was walking towards them. She startled at the murderous expression on his face and the aura he was emitting was making her feel weak and shaky. “Sensei! I uh, I can explain!” She gesticulated furiously while stepping back and in her haste her foot caught on a roll of rope and she tripped over the railing. 

She hit the water with a great splash. She had become a good swimmer this past year and had no problem staying afloat but the boat was still moving. She saw Kisame hoist up and backhand Aikawa hard and couldn't’'t help but let out a laugh. That had to hurt, whatever teeth he had left would have rattled. 

Something grabbed her foot and yanked, she just managed a breath before she was pulled under. She found herself surrounded by sharks and face to face with.. Kisame? She blinked, her sight underwater was a little blurry but it sure looked like him. She tried to mime needing to go up for a breath. 

He gave her a quizzical look, then squinted at the bottom of the ship in the distance and scratched at the back of his neck. He shook his head and tapped her lips. Then he very carefully placed one hand on the top of her back, one on her chest and squeezed the air from her. Before she could panic he put his lips on hers and blew. 

It was the weirdest sensation she had ever felt, having air blown in to her. After a few seconds he placed his hands on her front and back again and forced her to exhale it back. A few seconds after that she felt her chest inflate again. Kisame the aqualung, she managed to not laugh. This was not the time. 

They stayed like that for a bit, he was on high alert but Sakura was feeling cold and sluggish. Kisame was warm, his knees had come up so she was kind of sitting in his lap and she had wrapped her arms and legs around him to be as warm as possible. It was kind of nice, especially once he wrapped an arm around her too. She wondered dimly if this was anything like how kissing was supposed to be. Probably not. Her brain felt like mud and her limbs were stiff. 

Someone was tapping her arm, it was another Kisame. The one Kisame handed her over to the other and they surfaced right next to the ship which had clearly circled back. He carried her on board, helped her undress and put her in a nice warm tub where she had a little nap before she dried off and got dressed in spare pants and a shirt. 

When she went out on the deck it was to find Aikawa and Kisame waiting. “Aikawa and I have been having a chat” Aikawa looked decidedly worse for wear, his face was swollen and discolored and he was definitely missing teeth. “It seems he had misinterpreted your interest somehow” 

Aikawa glanced at her “Y-yes. I apologize, I should not have assumed –I mean. Kunoichi are reputed as, uh-” He abruptly stopped talking as Kisame bared his teeth. “A-ah, my apologies” He bowed hastily and limped to to the interior of the ship. Kisame shook his head. 

\---- 

Sakura sighed, what a day this had been. It was her watch, she looked over at Kisame who was sleeping. She bit her lip, which one was the clone? She had been thinking about the not-kiss quite a bit, what would it be like? She looked closely at his face. 

“Cn feel you starng. W’s mattr?” he mumbled sleepily and opened an eyelid just a sliver. When she didn’t respond, he closed his eye again and seemingly went back to sleep. 

Sakura worried at her lip some more, then gathered her courage, reached out and touched his cheek just below his gills. His eyes opened a fraction again and he gave her an assessing look but he otherwise did not move. She leaned down and kissed him on the lips. Well, it was more like two odd dry brushes of her lips against his. She lost her nerve and sat back up, her face felt like it might be on fire. 

Kisame rolled over to his side and reached for her hand, he gave it a gentle tug “Hey, c’mere” 

She let herself be led to lay down on her side too. He hesitated for just a second before moving his hand to the small of her back and pulling her in closer. Then he tipped her chin up with his other hand and kissed her. His lips were surprisingly soft and moist as they moved over hers in slow motions, she tried her best to mimic what he was doing. After a minute he pressed a bit closer and deepened the kiss, just a tiny hint of tongue. Oh yes, she could understand why people did this. She wrapped her arm around his upper back and gave as good as she got. 

Eventually he pulled back, gave her a finishing peck on the lips and rolled over on his back –pulling her with him so she was sprawled out on top of him. “Alright?” He was rubbing his thumbs in soothing circles on her back. 

“Better now” She picked on a thread that stuck out from his shirt. “That sleezeball, that was my first kiss you know. It’s such a silly thing. The possibility of.. That. happening to me just never occurred to me. I feel like I’m saying that a lot lately” 

She felt his chest rise and fall as he heaved a great sigh “Yeah. I’m sorry, we probably should have talked over stuff like this. I gotta say you handled yourself well though. I don’t think he’ll try something like that again in a hurry” 

“Mmh” Was Sakuras intelligent reply. They lay in comfortable silence until her eyes started to droop, this felt nice, uncomplicated. She hoped it still would be in the morning. Kisame rolled them over on their sides again and pulled his comforter over them. She shuffled close hoping for another embrace, he obliged. She felt so warm and safe and he smelled nice, like ocean breeze and something distinctly male. If she were a cat she would have purred. 

She registered him getting up at some point, it had been right around his shift time so she didn’t feel too bad about that. 

The next day came around. Nothing had really changed, he was the same as before and so was she. They were good. Aikawa still hadn’t come out of his quarters by the time they made it to port but that was just fine with her, Kisame had stopped by every now and then to check he was still in there and that he was breathing. They disembarked and watched the cloaked and covered Aikawa + entourage walk away after having completed this mission. 

“Alright Pinky-chan, lets get going” He hoisted his backpack and they set off to complete the second mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because Sakura isn't just a fragile little flower anymore


	8. Growin pains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Growing pains and pointy things.  
> We get to learn a bit about Kisames background.  
> Kakashi has a bad case of hangxiety and we briefly see our root agent again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi,  
> I'm so happy for your comments, I feel really bad now for all the times I read a fic and didn't leave one. It really does promote more writing.
> 
> Also, I added a new note for the previous chapter a while after the posting, you can always go back and read it if you want but in case you don't want to and are wondering about everyones current ages here they are:
> 
> Kisame, Kakashi -around 27-28  
> Shisui is around 23-24, we haven’t seen much of Itachi yet but hes 20ish(?)  
> The rookie 9 are about 15-16 (Sakura was almost 14 by the time Kisame approached Tsunade about the apprenticeship)
> 
> Yes, I manipulate the timelines.

The city they had arrived at was Dagarashi port, it was a popular destination for tourists and there were shops and stands selling bits and bobs everywhere. Sakura eyed the displays they passed with great interest. She still had some spending money left over from all the missions they had taken recently, she loved her wakizashi but maybe she could find some other more concealable weapons that weren't kunai or shuriken? 

She had veered off course a few times already to look at this or that, Kisame had firmly steered her back. “Business first, leisure time later. We’ve made good time and we are returning this way too you know, we’ll make a stop then” 

She made wide eyes at Kisame whos eyebrow twitched in response “That’s really creepy, don’t make cow eyes” 

Sakura blinked rapidly, turned away from him and sped up. Huh? “Cherry-chan?” No response. He shrugged and sped up too, he was all in for getting this delivery over and done with quicker if she was. 

The village they were bound for was only about four days walk from their starting point, even while travelling as civilians Kisame and Sakura were fast and they made it in three. The mood had been strange, he wasn’t sure what the issue was and Sakura either didn’t know herself or she wasn’t sharing. 

Was she still troubled by the incident on the boat? He thought he might have seen her lip wobble when he had pulled out some salt pork leftovers he had snagged from the ships galley. He shot her a side-glance, she had also shrieked like a banshee on more than one occasion. 

He exhaled explosively and knocked on the door of the building where they were delivering the missive. A stern looking man opened the door and led them inside. The delivery itself at least was quick and painless, the recipient only wanted to know if there had been trouble and he told them about the bandits. After this they all bowed to each other and Kisame and Sakura were ushered back out. 

It was already late in the day, since Kisame had promised her a stay at Dagarashi port he decided that they should just get going. Once outside of the village they changed back to their regular attire and set off at ninja speed. When they stopped to make camp for the night Sakura was exhausted, was she sick? Or maybe he needed to up her training regime? 

They had just finished setting up the traps for the night when he noticed. He looked her up and down, she seemed unharmed but there was no mistaking it. “Are you injured?” He asked. 

“I, uh, no?” What a complete non sequitur “I’m really tired though, I’m going to get ready for bed” She walked off a short distance to do her business. 

Kisame got the bedrolls out, frowning all the while. Could it be some kind of slow acting hemorrhagic poison? They hadn’t done battle since the bandits, that lump on the ship hardly counted. 

Sakura returned to camp, she was dragging her feet now and Kisame was getting seriously worried and a little pissed off actually. The smell had intensified in the time she had been gone, he was done with this. 

Sakura was holding herself oddly, and she was clutching her upper left arm. 

“Out with it” He said brusquely and crossed his arms over his chest. 

Sakura hunched in on herself slightly and covered her face with both hands before she said in a thin voice “I.. I Seem to have started my monthlies” 

Silence. 

“Your period? That's what this is? Oh thank fuck” Kisame couldn’t help it, he laughed. Sakura sniffled pitifully. 

He walked over with his signature toothy grin on his face and hugged his mortified student “Sakura. I’m not laughing at you" He laughed some more. “You’ve been flagging and I could smell the blood. Not to mention you’ve been a complete basket case since Dagarashi” Sakura moved a hand enough to send him a red rimmed one-eyed glare. 

“Oh come on” He let her go and gave her a shove “It’s natural, and it’s not even weird. I’m not even going to tell you the things my body can get up to” He went to his pack and rummaged a bit before pulling out a wide roll of bandages which he tossed her way. “We’ll get you some lady-stuff when we get back to civilization” He turned his back and started his nightly stretch routine feeling relived, Sakura was incredibly embarrassed about the oddest things. It was probably a cultural difference? 

After she had done her stuff and changed her pants Sakura joined him for stretches, still a little pink-faced. He supposed he could leave the talk till after they were back in Konoha.. Naah. 

“So. Did they teach you about the birds, the bees and birth control in that academy of yours?” He had so far been unimpressed by the academy and was not holding his breath.   
“Y-yes” Stuttered Sakura, now positively red-faced again. 

“Good. Then you know about the seal?” 

Sakura gave a shrug. “I, kind of?” 

Kind of, well that was better than no. “The seal basically puts your reproductive system in partial stasis. You maintain hormone production but you won’t release any eggs and you won’t have periods. It’s a quick and relatively painless procedure, and you can remove it if you ever want to make babies” 

“Who, um. Who makes the seal?” She thought back to Sasuke's sealing, if she had to ask Kakashi to do this..

“It’s done at the hospital, if you’re done bleeding by time we get there for the regular check-up they can probably schedule it. Once it’s complete and activated it retreats in to itself and becomes a tiny little thing, but the actual seal matrix is pretty large if i recall correctly so it probably takes a while to draw up” 

Sakura peered at Kisame. How did he know all this stuff? “Okay” Was her only reply. She was tired and just ugh. She couldn't wait to get to town.   
\---- 

When they arrived at Dagarashi port they stopped by a convenience store for Sakuras supplies before they got a room at a local inn. There was a shower and she felt much better after getting properly washed up. Also, hot water. Kisame took his turn after her, and then they went to the market. 

It was great. They went for the food stalls first, everything smelled so good. They ended up with skewers of grilled shrimp and deep fried vegetables and they walked around eating in companionable silence while checking out various goods. 

Kisame predictably gravitated towards sharp and pointy things, he ended up buying a new yanagi (sushi knife) and Sakura learned that he liked cooking. 

Sakura found herself a very cheap, old and scruffy looking tanto and some kanzashi that were actually cleverly disguised knives -You could pull them out and the scabbards would stay in the hair while the needle-like knives could be used. Her hair wasn’t really long enough for this yet but it would be. She also picked up some makibishi spikes, she had never seen any before and had no idea when or how she might use them but they looked vicious and she had to have them. 

“Hmph, no shark figurines” Kisame tsked. They had found a display of summons, they had toads, slugs, snakes, salamanders, monkeys, dogs and others. Sakura ended up buying one depicting a beautiful clam and another in the shape of a tiny pug. Kisame gave her a funny look, she shrugged. They were cute ok? 

After having had their fill of the market they went back to the inn. It had a laundry service and they happily handed over most of their clothing to be cleaned. Kisame had brought out his weapons care kit and they were both taking care of their respective swords. 

“You’re from Kirigakure, right?” 

Kisame stopped his ministrations but didn’t look up. “Yes, I am” 

“What was it like there?” She asked curiously. 

If she had been looking his way she would have seen the somewhat troubled look on his face. “Kiri is. Well, beautiful and terrible” He resumed the process of blackening his blade. 

“It’s an island nation as I’m sure you know, there’s a main island and a lot of smaller ones. Some are connected by bridges, others not. You would think it might be barren being surrounded by sea, but it’s actually pretty green because of agriculture. And there’s a lot of mist, obviously” 

“Obviously” Sakura parroted. 

“It was a nice place to be a kid, the people are nice. Well, somewhat. It’s complicated. The academy.. I suppose you’ve heard of the bloody mist?” 

“Yes” Sakura had heard of it, and of the horrible graduation ritual that had thankfully been discontinued. 

“Kiri.. Has had a caste system in place for a long time. It’s pretty bad to be honest, caused a lot of grief for a lot of people. There's a lot of poverty and corruption” He frowned “Then things took a really bad turn when the Mizukage lost his marbles and started killing off people with bloodline-limits a few years ago. That’s partially why I left. 

-You may not have noticed, but I have a bloodline-limit" He wore a serious face, though the effect was somewhat ruined because he also said this in a loud whisper. 

“You’re kidding” She replied in fake-surprise. “Um, are there.. More of you?” She regretted this question the second it left her mouth and was about to try to take it back when he answered. 

“I think I still have an aunt and some cousins on one of the smaller islands. My folks and the others died a long time ago.. We, uh, are naturally inclined towards blood and combat. It’s doesn’t promote long term survival for most people. My father was a civilian so I’m slightly less savage” He turned her way wearing a positively predatory grin that tickled her flight response and made her skin crawl, had he always had that many teeth?! 

Sakura lost her thirst for knowledge after that and did not ask what happened to his father.   
\----

They had a lazy morning the next day. Sakura slept in because her bed was heavenly and she would probably be sleeping outdoors for the next few days. Kisame had vacated his to search for breakfast and do whatever else he did when he was by himself. 

She took a long shower before she got dressed and when they were both fed, watered and packed they went down to the docks to catch a ship back to Fire country. 

The boat was pretty much the same as last time, but it was blessedly Aikawa-free, they rented a room this time as there was no guarding to be done and they could train now too! 

Much of the journey was spent running across the waves and doing mock battles next to the boat, and Sakura learned to really appreciate her mesh armor. Kisame wasn’t actually trying to harm her of course, but the scratches and shallow cuts from his katana would have been much worse without it. She shrieked and parried a strike that shook her whole body   
“Why are you so freakishly strong!?” 

Kisame cackled loudly and shot back “We’ll be doing extra strength training in the morning, shrimp!” 

Sakura growled and tried to skewer him with a water jutsu, didn’t work.   
\---- 

Saltwater stung like a bitch, she had rinsed herself off with a water jutsu but she still felt like an open sore. She was also cold, she had tried to get Kisame to teach her the hot water jutsu but apparently you needed to manipulate fire for it as well as water. Inner stuck her nose up and gave an angry _”HUMPH!”_ in her mindscape. She dried herself off, put strips on or bandaged on the worst of the cuts, did her night-things and rolled herself up in her blanket. 

“There’s a worm in your bed” Kisame had come in after rinsing as well and was toweling his hair. 

“Ha.Ha. Well you’re a.. a.. Fishroll!” 

He gave her a light smack -in the stomach area judging by the ‘oof’ she made- as he sat down on the bed. “That was a terrible comeback Pinky, I’m not even in my blanket yet” 

He undressed and crawled in, his blanket was long enough. Amazing. 

“I’ve been thinking, how would you feel about joining the chunin exams again this year?” 

Sakura lowered her blanket so her face could be seen. “Um” She thought back to the complete clusterfuck that the previous exam had been. Then again.. Rogue Sannin wasn’t really the norm for these kinds of things, right? “I would like to? How will that work though, I’m not part of a three man cell..” 

“I’ll talk to blondies sensei. That Nara kid got promoted already so they’re one short” 

Taking the exam with Ino and Choji? That didn’t sound too bad. 

“If you’re up for it, we still have some time to train and you guys will be able to train together some as well. For what it’s worth, I think you’re ready” He reached out and ruffled her hair, he stilled his hand and they exchanged smiles. 

Sakura retreated back in to her blanket cocoon, she had the best sensei. Kisame stretched, put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes to sleep.   
\---- 

The journey back to Konoha after they arrived in Fire country was uneventful. Kisame had started her on circulating chakra consciously through her limbs to increase her speed and strength alternately, and except for the few times he had to stop her from braining herself on tree stems or plunging to her death when she missed a branch she was doing well. 

Once she started getting the hang of the speed boost about two days in to it, it was on. Ninja-Tag. Kisame was it and Sakura ran for her life. Kisame gave her a head-start but caught up inevitably, there was a tussle and Sakura ate dirt. She then took off after Kisame who was not using chakra for speed, catch -tussle –switch, rinse repeat. 

They rested up at night and took breaks too of course, Sakura was too tired for conversation and only wanted to eat and sleep. 

Sakura was still moving on her own volition when they reached the village gates, her stamina and endurance had improved in leaps and bounds. 

Kisame was of the opinion that reports should be handed in as soon as possible after a mission unless there was obvious reason not to, and so he led them to the same room they had used for the mission briefing to sit down and write their report. They handed it in and agreed to meet for food and drinks in the evening.   
\---- 

Kakashi had been in the missions office when they came to hand in their mission report. Sakura was limping, what was visible of her skin was black and blue and covered in half-healed cuts. He also thought he could see bandages underneath her mesh armor. 

That part of his brain that screamed ‘pack’ whenever she was around or on his mind redoubled its efforts. His alarm had only increased when he followed them sneakily to the hospital. 

He had done the only sensible thing afterwards. He had wallowed in his own guilt and fears for a while, then he got shitfaced drunk and went to visit his friend Tenzo to voice his concerns somewhere safe. 

Tenzo had immediately clammed up in the way that Kakashi knew meant the seal on his tongue was itching. Root. His student was somehow mixed up with Root. Kakashi panicked. 

He ran to Tsunade’s office to demand answers with a disgruntled Tenzo hot on his heels. Tsunade only told him to keep his damn trap shut and get the fuck out, and he allowed himself to be dragged off by his friend. This only lasted until he caught a glimpse of familiar pink in one of the local establishments however. 

There was a commotion at the entrance to the bar, and someone made their way over to them 

“Uh, Hatake? Can we help you with something?” Kisame enquired. Sakura froze. Kakashi twitched. 

Sakura looked over her shoulder. He was staring at her with a wide eye, he looked ruffled and.. Confused? 

“Kakashi-sa-” He moved. Sakura startled and spilled her drink before trying half-heartedly to punch his stupid face which was now within reach. 

He caught her hand, hooked his mask under his nose, stuck his face in the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply. 

Sakura was completely taken of guard by this and did not immediately react because _”WHAT???!”_ After a few inhales and exhales he proceeded to rub his face in her neck. Then he looked up and noticed Kisame, the blue giant had raised an eyebrow in question but otherwise hadn’t reacted. Kakashi looked at him warily for a few seconds, then pulled his mask all the way back up and bolted. 

“So” Kisame said. “That happened, huh” 

Sakura was opening and closing her mouth repeatedly. “What- Why- What- What the hell am I supposed to do with that?! What even was that??” 

Kisame sipped his sake and rubbed his chin “Well, you seem to want to punch him and hug him. Looks to me like he’s wanting the hugging but probably needs a good punching” He leaned his chin in to his hand. 

Sakura took a swig from the sake bottle “What the fuck..” 

Kisame gave a belly laugh and ordered two more bottles of sake.   
\---- 

Sakura woke up the next morning to a colossal headache. Kakashi woke up at Tenzos place, grabbed the nearest pillow, clutched it to his face and screamed in to it. 

\----   
Kisame too was having a bad morning. He had been called down to T&I where he was met by Inoichi, Ibiki, Shikaku and Uchiha Shisui. The former three looked grim, but it was the forbidding look on Shisuis face that really had him on edge. 

They went down, down, down and eventually they entered a room with a two-way mirror. Kisame studied the person in the cell behind the glass, it was the live agent from Training ground zero. 

Inoichi gestured to the person. “As you know, we’ve been working on identifying the agents you brought back. This is Uchiha Hiroto. He does not seem aware of his identity however, as he insists his name is ‘Sai’ “


	9. Brains and brawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kisame has a minor freak out over the state of things. Sakura kicks ass and oooh my god

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Alright so this chapter is shorter than I would have liked but unfortunately myself and the kids landed ourselves in quarantine pending test results from one of the kids' teachers and so we're doing homeschool and then I have to do all my work too so I'm in a bit of a time crunch ugh. I'm not sure what the hold-up is but here we are.
> 
> I'm crossing all my fingers that none of us get sick. I can't say for sure that I'll be able to post next week but I'll do my best.

“Well fuck” That was an apt description of the situation, Kisame thought. “So you know him?” He turned to Shisui who had his arms crossed over his chest. 

“No” He said. “But I’m someone who has access to the Uchiha records and Shikaku asked me to check his DNA against our database based on his appearance” 

Ibiki gestured for Shisui to go on. 

“His family disappeared after the Kyuubi attack, they were presumed dead. Seems they weren’t -or at least he wasn’t. He can’t tell us what happened to his parents as he doesn’t even know who he is, or so it seems at least” 

Inoichi picked up from there. “Of course, we can’t be 100% sure that he doesn’t know. For the same reason that we can say with certainty that he is Root. He has the seal on his tongue” 

Kisame pinched the bridge of his nose “Then this is definitely Danzo?” 

“It could be, but we can’t be sure. Someone else might have taken the reigns, the seal could be a remnant even if it is still active. It doesn’t only prevent the person from speaking, it also provides a solid mental block” Shikaku looked to Inoichi who frowned. “The still unknown deceased agents also have the seals” 

“What’s the plan then? If we let him out someone will know that we know. Speaking of, does Fugaku know?” 

“No” Replied Shisui ”Things have been strained between the village and the Uchiha for a long time, this could cause a lot of unrest if not handled properly. Even if it isn’t Danzo it’ll be bad” 

And so Shisui told the gathered shinobi about the formerly planned Uchiha coup, and how it had almost ended in genocide before Danzo’s plans had been discovered and thwarted. –That is to say, Danzo had tried to steal Shisui’s eyes to prevent Shisui from using Kotoamatsukami on Fugaku, and had in the process revealed that he believed the only solution would be to get rid of the whole clan. 

Shisui had surprised the man by using his good sense and fleeing to inform the Hokage who had then supposedly ‘handled’ Danzo -allowing Shisui to follow through with the original plan which had successfully averted the coup. 

“How the hell is Danzo still on the council?? Why isn’t he stone cold dead or rotting in a cell somewhere?!” Kisame paced agitatedly, this kind of shit was why he had left Kiri! 

“His close friendship with the Sandaime probably helped..” Shikaku muttered from his slouched position by the wall. He glanced at the other occupants of the room and pushed away from the wall. 

“Right then. So. Plan. The kid has to stay here for now, if we let him go someone will know we know something” Shisui frowned but did not object and Shikaku continued. 

“We’re currently working on locating and tracking financial trails, if someone is running a second military we will find some unless they’re funding it out of pocket. We need to consider staging something at some point as well, flush them out” 

Kisame rubbed furiously at his face. At least the Hokage knows and is not in on the madness, he thought. This isn’t like Kiri, this isn’t Kiri. 

Kisame left the meeting after that. He was no slouch in tactics or intelligence but as he was possibly still an object of interest it would be way too suspicious for him to be poking around in anything. 

He took a deep breath and decided to get on with his day. Time to go find blondies sensei and negotiate Sakuras spot on the team for the exams. 

\---- 

Getting Sakura on the team was easy, Ino had already done it for him really and Asuma agreed right away. They only had about a month before the first test, and then another month before they were off to the second part of the exam which was to be held in Sunagakure. And so they started joint training sessions right away to get a feel for one another and learn to work together. 

Asuma set up several ‘missions’ where strategy and improvisation were key points, this caused some problems at first because Sakura was not Shikamaru, but they managed ok after a while. 

Kisame set up obstacle courses and ran endurance drills that had Sakura winded, but Choji and Ino were absolutely exhausted. In addition they ran actual paid missions together and had their separate training too of course. All in all things were going well. 

After a particularly grueling session of Kisames involving water and a number of sharks giving chase, Shikamaru sauntered over to where they were strewn about. He found Choji heaving in a bush and Ino sprawled on her back looking barely conscious. Sakura was sat leaning against a tree, she was sweaty and out of breath but otherwise looked composed. He raised an eyebrow at her, she bared her teeth in an aggressive smile and he had to suppress goosebumps. 

“Nice training-session?” He smirked at Ino. 

“Urgh, Shikamaru, help me up” Ino whined and held out her arms briefly before she dropped them back down with another complaint. 

Choji had sat up and watched Shikamaru blearily, Kisame dropped down from above them and made all the genin and the one chunin jump. “What’s this then? Come to join our training-session, Pineapple-boy?” 

Shikamaru scratched at the back of his head “Nah, the old man sent me over to invite you all to dinner. Choza and his wife decided to throw a feast” Choji perked up at once and pulled Ino to her feet. 

“Food sounds really good, we’ll take you up on that. Pack up and lets go” He gestured to the genin.  
\----

There really were a lot of people at the feast, luckily the Akimichi compound had large areas for these kinds of things. 

Kisame had migrated over to a group of people who looked about his age and a tall blonde woman, no doubt a Yamanaka, was practically draped over him. The sight of it had felt off somehow. Sakura was seated with team 10 and some other youths from the clans. They had been discussing the differences in their training regiments and Sakura was getting increasingly agitated. 

Sakura got along well with Ino and Choji after she mended her friendship with Ino, but Shikamaru had rubbed her the wrong way ever since the exams and had been pushing her buttons hard for weeks. How he had survived all these years on Inos team with the kind of attitude he had she didn’t know. 

“Your sensei is bat-shit crazy and he’s not even putting you through your paces. Probably because you’re a girl” Shikamaru chewed lazily on his daifuku. 

Sakura gave him an incredulous look. “Are you kidding? I’m practically half-dead after most of our training sessions. And what does being a girl have to do with anything?” 

Shikamaru was looking smug, like she had just proven his point somehow. Inner was raring to kick his teeth in. 

“It’s just. There’s a reason you never see more than one kunoichi on the same team. You’re not really physically suited, you know? Women” He said wisely. 

“EH?!” You wanna put your fists where your mouth is, shithead?!” Inner, Sakura, or both? she wasn’t sure which- yelled across the table. 

“That’s very unladylike-” Shikamaru started, but was interrupted when Sakura stood up and slammed both fists down on the table hard enough that it broke where she hit. 

“Um? Hey!” He waved his arms trying to regain his footing. Sakura had grabbed him by the back of his shirt and was dragging him towards a nearby grassy field. After a few feeble attempts at getting loose he resigned himself to his fate and let himself be dragged. 

Sakura dropped him unceremoniously and walked a small distance ahead before she turned around and charged. Shikamaru threw up an arm to block, Sakura charged past him, ducked slightly and delivered an elbow to his kidney before taking a swipe at his head which he dodged. 

Shikamaru clutched his side and cursed internally. He couldn’t use his hiden for this –there were rules about these kinds of things, weapons were out too. Troublesome. 

He tried to retaliate but was shocked to find that she dodged his every attempted move. When had she gotten this fast?! She landed a few more hits and then finally one to his face that made his ears pop and he felt more than heard his nose crack. He decided to flop down to the ground after that. Sakura shrieked wordlessly when it was clear that he was not going to get back up. She stomped off towards the tables, fists held out to her sides, hair fanning behind her and.. Crackling with static electricity? 

“Son..” Shikaku had seen the whole debacle and sauntered over. Shikamaru heaved a great sigh from his position on the grass. 

“Have you learned nothing from living with your mother? That was painful to watch” 

Shikamaru rolled over and took his fathers outstretched hand to stagger to his feet. “I Biscawcuwated” 

Shikaku let out a bark of laughter “Miscalculated huh, not missing teeth are you?” 

“Dou, I bit by todgue add I thidk by dose is broked” He tried to staunch the blood flow by pinching the top of his nose and cast a glance in the direction she went “She’s... idteresdidg” 

Shikaku clapped him on the back and started to steer him over to where one of the clan healers was sitting “I’m not sure this is a good way to get to know girls, Shikamaru” 

“Oh by god dad shudup” Shikamaru made as though trying to limp away but Shikaku, laughing, put his hands on his shoulders and sat him down. 

Sakura was still miffed when she sat back down with the others, some looked at her warily where as others such as Ino cheered and whooped. “You know you’re going to have to forgive him, right? He’s not usually this bad you know” 

A non-committal huff was Sakuras response. She joined the group for some more chatting and board games of all things before deciding it was time to head home. She hadn’t been able to spot her sensei anywhere, she supposed he must have left already even if it was unusual of him to do so without letting her know. 

She had decided to take the shortcut through the forest, it was dark but not THAT dark and she was a ninja. She was almost by the boarder to the Yamanaka district when she froze. There, a few trees ahead was her sensei. He had his back turned to her, his pants were riding low and she could see his toned, bare backside flexing and relaxing rhythmically. The tall blonde from the party was bent over directly in front of him and clutching at the tree, moaning in to the hand he had over her mouth. 

Sakura was rooted to the spot. She felt a slight stab of something unpleasant in her gut area and then a lick of heat. She should go, she really, really should. She didn’t. It was like watching an accident happening, a very sexy accident. She just could not look away. 

He had sped up, his hips were positively crashing in to her now and it was producing some very indecent sounds. The blondes moaning increased but he hadn’t made a sound yet. It was definitely weird that she wished he would and she felt a blush creep its way up her face. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there watching but suddenly he pulled back and she saw the first splatter of white hit the tree in front of them. Shit! Why was she still here, they were going to see her! 

Sakura turned around and hastily retreated the same way she’d come as quietly as she could. Thank the gods for all the trees, hopefully she would be out of sight before they deemed themselves completely finished. 

She ended up back on the road and took a deep breath. **What was I thinking?!** _Wasn’t thinking, that was hot as hell though_ Inner mentally gave her thumbs up. Sakura shook her head and started walking towards the Yamanaka compound again, she wanted to go to sleep and just forget the whole incident. How she was going to look him in the face tomorrow without spontaneously combusting she didn’t know. 

The hopes Sakura had been entertaining that she had not been noticed did a nosedive when she spotted Kisame leaning casually against the wall of her house. She gulped. At least he didn’t look angry. 

She didn’t know what to do so she tried to go for normal. What did one say to the person they had just peeped on while they were having sex!? She had no idea what her face was doing, but it must have been something. He raised an eyebrow at her and she blushed crimson. Curses! 

“U-um, good night” She stuttered out and opened the door, she caught his laughed “Good night, Pinky” before it closed behind her and she fled upstairs to do her night things and possibly drown herself in the shower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must say I've been agonizing over posting or not posting warnings before single chapters. Some I would put up here for sure like non-con (I don't know that there will be any) But for regular sexual stuff and violence? I feel like that's already in the tags, do you guys prefer warnings before each chapter or no?


	10. Blades blades blades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some more KisameSakura interaction. 
> 
> Our hybrid team gets sent abroad, Iruka feels bad. 
> 
> Time to put on the big-ninja pants.

She lingered in bed longer than usual the next day but eventually had to get up. It was a missions day and they were to get started in half an hour, time to go face the music she thought. She got dressed and forced down some breakfast, she really wasn’t feeling well. 

To her surprise and great relief, nothing at all unusual happened. It was all tedious D-ranks today but that was ok. They captured Tora in record-time, pained a few fences and scrubbed some tubs for a local bath house. Ino gave her a few worried looks during the morning but Sakura waved it off, she would tell Ino later.. Maybe. 

After the missions it was time for one-on-one training. Kisame had given her scrolls on water jutsu to read beforehand, and they practiced well in to the afternoon. Afterwards, Kisame invited her over for tea and had her go home and fetch the tanto she bought at Dagarashi port. 

She had never been to his place before. He had a small apartment in the Joinin barracks with a combined living-room/kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. He had a long ocean blue sofa and a table, a tv, a few shelves with books, scrolls, smaller weapons and knick-knacks and a large sword rack that held a few different blades. 

Sakura was watching him handling her tanto. He was turning it this way and that, studying the blade, picking at the scabbard and the handle. He held it out and the blade gave a faint blue glow. 

“Well well well, looks like you got yourself a chakra conducting tanto” 

Sakura gazed at the weapon, it was ratty looking, dirty and dark with rust but that glowy thing was really cool. 

Kisame laid the tanto down on the table and grabbed a scroll from one of his shelves. He rolled it out on the floor and started unsealing various tools, rags and bottles. “I’m no weaponsmith, but I’ve done my fair share of fixing. I’m not sure if the handle and the scabbard are salvageable, but the blade seems to be” 

He handed her a scrub and a bottle. “Grab that tray over there, pour some of that on the blade and scrub it gently” 

Sakura did as she was told. While she scrubbed, Kisame took out a few smaller scrolls that contained first aid supplies and started doing inventory. 

“So. I heard you beat up Shikaku’s kid” 

Sakura scratched at her cheek, maybe she shouldn’t have punched a clan heir? Mental images of why he hadn't witnessed this brawl briefly flashed though her mind but she hastily suppressed them. She couldn't help the faint blush but hopefully he would attribute that to the topic at hand. “I did, uh, sorry?” 

“You don’t sound sorry at all” He said in that voice he had that held suppressed laughter in every syllable. 

“He was a real jerk, I’m not sure what his deal about women is but he makes me want to wipe the floor with him every other time he opens his mouth” ..... “I should probably confer with Inner though, I shouldn’t lose my temper like that” She mumbled as an afterthought. 

Kisame Hmmed. “Was a fair fight from what I heard, he’s lucky you’re konoha-nin" He re-sealed some bandages. “How are things with ‘Inner’?” 

Sakura faltered in her scrubbing. She HAD told him about Inner , he was her sensei after all. But this was the first time he had brought the topic up after that time. 

“Um. She’s.. It’s much the same as before except she doesn’t help me box things up so much. That’s to say –I don’t box things up so much. I think I might be going a bit mad to be honest” She tugged at a lock of hair and smeared rusty sword-scrub on her cheek in the process. 

He shrugged and added jars of different pills in separate seals on one of the scrolls “Eh. We’re all more or less unhinged to be honest, at least your lose screws are useful” He had a point there, dual thinking was alright. They continued with their tasks for some time. 

“Let me see that blade, go rinse it off” 

She quickly rinsed it in the sink. Already it looked much better, a rough dull gray instead of bumpy rusty brown. The blade switched hands. “Good. I’m not sure that it’ll be ready for your exam but we’ll practice some with mine just in case” 

\---- 

The missions room was the same as always, Umino Iruka and two others were manning the desk today. 

Kisame, Asuma and the three genin approached. “Good morning, Iruka sensei~ ” Ino and Sakura said in tandem. Iruka smiled “Good morning” 

“What have you got for us today, sensei?” Kisame said. 

Iruka looked at a few different scrolls, then hesitantly held out one with a red tie. He knew they were ninja, and with two high level jonin currently on the team he could only give them so many odd-job and low level missions even if the three other members were genin. “There is a bandit problem in a village in grass country. A team was sent to investigate, they suspect ninja involvement and the team has requested back-up to handle the issue” 

Asuma accepted the scroll with a nod and pocketed it. “We’ll be off then. Thank you sensei” 

They all said their good byes and left to get ready. The mission was somewhat time-sensitive, and they each ran home to pick up their stand-by mission packs. Sakura also strapped on her Wakizashi. They met by the gates as soon as they were ready and set out. 

The mission destination wasn’t very far beyond the boarders of fire country but it was still a long trek that took days. They made camp late at night and started out early in the morning. As they had so few hours of rest the genin got to sleep while Kisame and Asuma split guard duty. 

“We’re meeting the other team here” Kisame pointed to a spot on the map just outside of the village with the bandit problem. “There is no need for us to be under-cover, but we are going to move quietly just in case” 

Asuma took out the mission scroll and held it out to the genin. “Do you know what this indicates?” He pointed at the red tie. Ino held up her hand, then quickly lowered it again with a slight blush. “Um, it means this is a possible elimination mission” 

Asuma nodded. “Correct. We’re going to see what we find when we get there, but in essence this means that the problem is to be taken care of permanently” 

Ino and Choji responded with a grimfaced “Yes, sensei”, Sakura pulled on the edge of her glove and gave a nod. Elimination.. The other two looked about as uneasy as she felt, that was something at least. 

A few miles off from their meetup point they heard a loud bang and saw a spray of violently purple smoke explode in the sky in the direction of the village. 

Asuma signaled to stop and they did so at once. 

“Get ready for battle. Sakura, drop your weights” Kisame said tersely. He slung his backpack under the nearest tree and Sakura hastened to do the same and obey the order. Ino and Choji followed suit and geared up as much as they could. “What’s going on?” Ino asked while double checking the contents of her weapons pouch. 

“This is friendly territory, and that” Asuma said gesturing to the giant floating purple could “Is the ninja-equivalent of a panic button. It’s a request for immediate assistance from any ally nearby” He had put out his ever present cigarette and he had what looked like combined brass knuckles and knives on his hands. 

Sakura watched her sensei in the background as he whipped out a scroll from his vest and sealed away his katana. He laid out another scroll, and with blood and handsigns another sword appeared. It was huge and covered in bandages, she was sure it was the same one she had seen in his bingo-book entry way back when he had just offered her the apprenticeship. 

What was it called..? Samehaha? He held it to his back and it stuck, no harness or strap, she made a mental note to ask him about that later. 

“We’re going to move fast, we don’t know what this is so you three stay in the back while Asuma and i take front. Ready to move out?” All three gave determined nods and they raced towards the signal. 

The scene that met them was like something out of a splatter comedy. There were bloodied bodies here and there and a man with light gray hair and a scythe was bouncing between three defending Konoha ninja and nearby trees like some kind of deranged pinball. He was laughing maniacally all the while. 

The ninja looked like they were on their last legs, and a fourth Konoha nin was lying in a pool of blood away from the battle. Kisame and Asuma went for the gray-haired man immediately. The genin watched from the edge of the forest until they noticed a group of decidedly not-Konoha ninja. The newcomers seemed confused and hesitant at first, but then then they went for the injured squad who had gathered around their teammate. 

Choji lept in to action first, and with an enlarged fist he disrupted their path. Sakura was a millisecond behind and met them head on with a wide diagonal slash of her wakizashi. Three scattered, one fell to the ground missing an arm and half a shoulder. One of the injured Konoha nin swiftly plunged a kunai in to his skull and he stilled. 

It soon became clear that these were not regular bandits, though they wore no headbands. A brunette had sent what looked like a wave of flame towards them, Sakura countered with water and the jutsu clashed with a hiss that produced copious amounts of steam. The view was momentarily obscured and the fire-user waved her hand in annoyance. 

Sakura took a deep breath, she hoped this wouldn’t interfere with the other battle. Kisame at least should be used to it, Asuma too was an elite jounin. She channeled Inner, put on her best murder face and released thin tendrils of her chakra in to the air. She latched on to the steam and turned it to thickest fog with a muttered “Kirigakure no jutsu” 

As expected, Ino turned up in her mindscape after a beat and everyones chakra cores became visible like little bonfires even with the fog. She could see what she assumed to be Kisame, Asuma and scythe-man darting around each other ahead. The loud swearing and whooping also coming from that direction supported this theory. 

Sakura found herself shoulder to shoulder with Choji as the three remaining fighters leapt for them. She mentally gulped, left maintaining the fog to Inner and used some of the water to form a floating semi-hard transparent barrier in their path. 

They heard a satisfying smack as two ninja failed to both stop their momentum in mid-air and bounce off the barrier that partially gave in. Chojis enlarged arm was there to meet them on their way down and he trapped one of them in his fist. The captive went still, Choji released him and the now mind-controlled ninja pulled out kunai and charged his teammate who shrieked in shock. Choji went round and attacked with chakra laden punches. 

Sakura sent off some shuriken and then engaged the remaining ninja in a sword fight. She circulated her chakra to increase her speed and she was marginally faster than him, but he clearly had more experience and the length of his arms gave him better reach than her. 

He parried and dodged her attacks and slashed at her with a long knife. He had managed to score some shallow cuts on Sakura and she would have been worried if she had the time. Finally she managed to nick his forehead when he was too slow to retreat after giving her yet another cut. 

Her intention had been to take his head of his shoulders, but the miss had an unexpected benefit. He bled copiously, and had to keep wiping his face to be able to see properly. 

She hit him once, twice, before he jumped a distance away and went through hand signs. Sakura made to follow him, but as she passed a patch of loose soil her legs got stuck and the ground solidified around them. She tried to use water to break free but he was already rushing towards her. "Shit!" 

She saw the blade and blocked it, then in a fit of desperation she reached for that part of her that crackled. She made a wild swinging motion with her free arm and yowled in terror and fury. 

Her opponent dropped like a puppet with cut strings, eyes open and mouth agape. Sakura was momentarily overwhelmed by strange flashes of light in different colors and sensations that made her her skin prickle. She blinked to try and clear her head and continued to free her legs. No-time-no-time still live enemies. 

She got lose just in time to watch the ninja Ino was steering get burned alive by his distraught teammates jutsu. The screaming was terrible and the poor fire-user faltered, Choji knocked her out with a light chop to the back of her head and tied her up. 

Inner prompted Sakura to plunge her sword tip in to the chest of the still burning ninja, it was a kindness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! So I know I've put english names on jutsu before, but Kirigakure no jutsu just sounds too cool and makes me think about Zabuza and I just didn't have it in me to call it hiding in mist technique. Sorry? >.>


	11. The next step

The sounds of battle coming from ahead had died out, Inner made the fog fade and they walked over to where both their sensei were standing, staring at a floating pinkish-red something. 

“...It’s not drowning” Said Kisame. 

“.......” 

“...It’s not bleeding to death either” Said Asuma, and he shot a look at the pair of legs that were strewn next to them. There was very little blood for such an injury. There was little blood too in what Sakura now recognized as a sort of water-prison. She moved closer and peered in, the man within was furiously trying to claw his way out and he was mouthing things that would have made the old Sakura blush. 

Asuma raised a chakra covered knuckle-knife and swiped twice, and Sakura watched with morbid fascination as the arms in the water-prison floated away from their body. 

The waterprison fell, Kisame shot out an arm and grabbed what remained of the person by the hair on his head. Water gushed from his mouth and he hacked. 

“OUCH YOU FILTHY FUCKING HEATHENS I’M GONNA FUCKING KILL Y-MMMMPH!!!!” Kisame had stuffed a very large roll of bandages in his mouth. He wordlessly held him up to Asuma who separated the head from the body without fanfare. Choji retched. 

The head was still alive when they sealed it in a scroll along with the other body parts. 

\---- 

While Ino did a rudimentary mindwalk on the ninja they had kept alive -under the watchful eye of Asuma. Sakura and Choji tended to the other Konoha team who had introduced themselves as Team 5. There had been nothing they could do for the heavily injured one, but they managed to set the others broken bones and clean and bandage their cuts and burns. 

Kisame had gone to check the village for survivors and/or possible left over enemies. Walking through it he was glad he had been able to leave the genin at the outskirts, it was a sad sight. Bodies littered the streets and fires were spreading rapidly, the smell of roasting human flesh was becoming stronger by the minute. He would need to go easy on the barbecue for a bit after this. 

Kisame himself wasn’t a great sensor, but Samehada could pick up tiny traces of chakra from miles away. He turned down an alley and stopped in front of a small house. He let himself in and walked over to the closet where the chakra came from. Terrified red eyes met his when he opened the door, she was sitting in a corner. He put on his most toothless smile, which was admittedly still a little scary, and held out a hand to her. “The assailants are dead, but the village is on fire. We’re evacuating, would you like to come with us?” 

Her eyes flickered to his forehead-protector, then to his smile, then to his.. Torso..? Strange. She looked at his face again, and with a hint of a blush and a tiny nod she took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. 

“I can’t sense anyone else here, let’s go back to my team?” She didn’t respond, but when he started walking she followed him mutely back to the others. He could feel her staring at him and Samehada alternately. 

\---- 

They had sealed the remaining bodies in scrolls and traveled for a few hours before they made camp for the night. Once they were settled, they had got the full story out of the Konoha-nin, the memories of their prisoner and the girl they had brought. 

The bandits who did indeed have ninja among them had become aware that the village had hired protection, they had decided to do a large scale raid and move on. In the middle of this, the man with the grey hair had appeared. 

The Konohans attempts at driving the bandits off and keeping the civilians safe had been violently interrupted. Most of the bandits had retreated when they saw the absolute carnage being dealt by the stranger, but a few had lingered.

The redhead who had decided to come with them to Konoha had been the only survivor. Ino had recognized her from the botched chunin exams in Konoha, but the girl had been very hesitant to give them her name. After much wheedling she had stammered out “U-Uzumaki Karin” 

“Uzumaki? Are you related to Uzumaki Naruto?” As far as Sakura was aware, Naruto had no family that he knew of. 

“I.. Maybe? The only other Uzumaki I ever knew was my mother, she died when I was very young. Most of the clan died in Uzushio..” She stopped talking and turned away. 

The Jonin and Chunin were all frowning. Sakura gave Kisame a questioning look, his only response was a tiny shake of the head. 

Karin glanced at the shark man. His chakra blazed like the sun, she was surprised it wasn’t exploding out of him with the amount and the intensity of it. She had almost felt snow-blind when they first met. And that thing he carried was.. Weird. Not unfriendly but weird for sure. 

She stared in to the fire they were roasting fish over. She wondered what Konoha was like, she hoped it would be better. Could it be that she had family left? She hugged her knees a little tighter and rubbed absentmindedly at the most recent bites on her arms. 

\---- 

The trip back to Konoha took almost twice as long as the journey out. Though they were in no immediate danger of dying, the remaining members of team 5 were all limping or flagging for one reason or another. They had to carry them for stretches and made quite a few stops to make the trip more bearable for all parties. 

They had a nightly guard rotation with two ninja each shift, this was partially because of safety but also for practical reasons. Between the 9 of them they only had 5 bedrolls. The injured got to sleep by themselves, Karin had latched on to Ino, Choji shared with Asuma, and Sakura bunked with Kisame. 

Kisame had not resealed the bandaged sword, and insisted that it too went in the bedroll. He had muttered something under his breath about thieving scum. As a result, Sakura found herself wedged between Kisame and the sword. It seemed even bigger now than it had when it was on her sensei’s back, with the hilt it was taller than her for sure. She idly wondered why it was bandaged, how would it cut? Questions for another day. 

It was still dark out when she woke feeling all tingly down her front, the sword was so close, why was it this close? 

She had enjoyed a nice warm sleep, head pillowed on a muscly blue arm. She was just wondering why she was awake when she heard a kind of deep clicking.. Croon? Purr? It was coming from directly below her feet. _What the hell?!_

Sakura jerked back towards Kisame whos response was to hug her and the sword tighter. Shark-sandwich, she thought hysterically before poking him in the arm hard and hissing “Sensei, I think there might be a raccoon in our bedroll” 

He sighed and pushed the sword from them “There’s nothing in the bedroll, go back to sleep Pinky” He took her hand and held it to the sword, something shifted subtly underneath its bandages. She opened up her mouth to say something but before she could he tapped out L-A-T-E-R on the back of her hand. 

She stared dubiously at what she could see of the sword. Freaking unnerving, that's what this was. The tiny skull on the hilt was almost level with her eyes. She tried to shrink back a bit further, and felt a slight fluttering sensation in her stomach region when Kisame wrapped an arm snugly around her waist. Ugh, she really hoped she wasn’t getting sick. 

By some miracle she did manage to go back to sleep, eventually. 

\---- 

They made it back to Konoha the evening before the the chunin exams were to begin. Ino, Sakura and Choji had given Asuma and Kisame the blow-by-blow of their battle with the unknown ninja, and they’d had plenty of time to fill out their parts of the missions report on the way back. 

After escorting the unfortunate team 5 to the hospital, the genin went home to rest and prepare for the next day while Kisame and Asuma took Karin to the Hokages office. 

Verbal and written reports were given, and then Karin was interviewed. Tsunade watched with fascination as the redhead alternated between being timid and abrasive as they covered the necessary topics. In the end she was granted asylum, and left in the tender care of Morino Ibiki for the time being. 

\---- 

While the genin and the village in general were getting ready for the upcoming exam, Hatake Kakashi returned from his mission in Amegakure. He had been sent there to deliver invitations to the genin exams, and to investigate some strange rumors. 

When he had arrived in Ame, armed shinobi had met him at the city entrance. They escorted him to what he assumed was some kind of administrative building where he was left to wait. 

He had expected to meet Hanzo, he was instead greeted by a man with bright salamander orange hair. The man was wearing a dark cloak with red clouds, and he was flanked by two companions in identical cloaks. 

“Hatake Kakashi, welcome to Ame. I am Yahiko, this is Konan” He gestured to his left. “And this is Nagato” He gestured to his right. Kakashis eyes lingered on the one called Nagato, his hair was garnet red and his eyes.. Ringed purple. Interesting. “We have been informed by the guards that you wish to invite our genin to participate in the chunin exams?” 

Kakashi bowed deeply before standing back up. “Thank you for having me. Yes. Forgive me, are you the, ah, leadership?” 

Yahiko inclined his head “We are” 

This was disconcerting. They needed answers, but Kakashi knew better than to ask more questions. “I understand that there have been.. Changes. Would you consider meeting with our Hokage?” 

“Is Shimura Danzo still in a position of power?” 

The question had set off all his alarm bells. 

In the end, Ame had sent two teams of genin. They had also given Kakashi a scroll to be handed to Tsunade and so here he was, kneeling in her office and waiting for her to read its contents. 

He peered at her with some concern as she paled, then colored rapidly in apparent anger, before going pale again and sitting down. 

“We’re going to need to call Jiraya home. Now. Genma” A masked anbu appeared by Kakashi. “See to it” She waved her hand and he was gone in a swish. Tsunade pulled out a bottle of Sake and chugged it. 

Shizune watched on, horrified, before seeming to remember that Kakashi was still there. “Uh, you’re d-dismissed Hatake-san" She said. Kakashi didn’t need to be told twice. 

\---- 

The first stage of the exam was held in Konoha and it was, as expected, a written test. It was a bit of a nut, one might even call it ‘troublesome’ but they passed with flying colors in the end. Upon leaving the classroom they received some information about the true purpose of the test, and then all the advancing genin teams were sent on a merry run to Sunagakure. 

The second part of the exam turned out to be a battle of scrolls like last time. They fought two teams and on one memorable occasion, several giant scorpions. 

After the completion of the second stage, there was a speech. They were then informed that there had been some kind of incident, and that all available information about their performances would be sent back to Konoha for evaluation. Then they were told to go home. 

Bewildered, they packed their stuff and set out for Konoha. 

\---- 

The genins journey home was completely uneventful, and once completed it was time for the Hokage to make some decisions. 

Tsunade had received detailed accounts from the exams, but because it had been incomplete she had also lined up the sensei in her office to get their assessments of their students. Kisame listened as the other sensei rattled off their reports. 

“Alright, thank you Gai. Kisame-san, a summary of Haruno Sakuras skills if you will” 

He straightened his back. “It is my opinion that Haruno Sakura should be promoted to chunin at this time, Hokage-sama. She is proficient in taijutsu, kenjutsu and basic to mid range ninjutsu. She currently uses water-release but is also displaying signs of an interesting secondary element. She has impeccable chakra control, her teamwork and strategy skills are adequate. She has mastered basic concealment and infiltration skills. 

The Hokage nodded her agreement. She opened her file and frowned at it, the rate at which Sakura had improved was astonishing. How had she gone unnoticed for so long? She probably shouldn’t push any more genin on Hatake. 

“Well then. Where are you all in regards to the ‘feminine arts’?” They could practically hear the eye-roll in her voice as she said this. “Asuma?” 

“Right. Ino is advanced, she is being trained by her clan as per their specializations. They boys.. Not great, but they are both clan heirs with other specializations.. “ He trailed off at the deeply unimpressed look on Tsunades face. 

“Right” She said flatly. “Kisame, you’re up” 

He gave a curt nod. “I’d say Sakura is relatively on track all things considered. I’ve hashed out a temporary outline for progression” 

Tsunade leaned forwards in interest. “You have?” The other sensei in the room peered at him interestedly too, Maito Gais stare was intensely hopeful. 

“Uh.. Yes?” He shifted on his feet, did they seriously expect people to do this stuff WITHOUT a plan? He knew of course that they were going to need to improvise a lot and some stuff wouldn’t go as planned but the potential for damage and/or drop-out in this kind of situation was huge. 

“Show me” Tsunade said and made grabby motions with one of her hands. 

Kisame nodded “Sure. It’s at my house, I’ll bring it by later on” 

“See that you do” She said, before turning to the next sensei. 

When all was said and done, all the leaf genin were promoted to chunin, and Neji made Jonin for his efforts in the ‘incident’ - whatever it was. 

\---- 

After the promotion ceremony, Kisame invited Sakura over to his place to talk. 

“Ok, so. You’re chunin now, which means it’s time we talk about your ‘Kunoichi training’” He made air quotes with his fingers. “There’s no nice way to say this so I’ll just go ahead, what it means is seduction training” 

Sakura sat there in silence for a moment, then said “Oh” 

She wasn’t an idiot, and knew that seduction was part of a ninjas work. She just hadn’t contemplated the actual practical aspect of it or the educational aspect for that matter. 

Kisame sat down next to her. “Now, you’re not specializing in seduction itself or a field where this specialization might be required so you only need uh, basic proficiency” 

“Um, how, uh.. I mean, how is it done?” It felt like a moronic question, Inner certainly thought it was going by the muttered _Yeah smartypants, how do you think it’s done”_ but Kisame apparently didn’t think it was. 

“It differs. Clan kids get prepared for this stuff from a pretty young age, there’s theory which is usually taught by family and then when it’s appropriate they have teachers for the more physical aspects of it. Their team sensei also handles parts of it” 

Sakura gulped “And, uh, the non-clan ninja such as myself?” She could hear her own voice going up an octave at the end of her sentence. 

“Alright, don’t panic now” He made some placating gestures with his hands that did nothing to calm her, this was way out of character for him. “Civilians have their team sensei and any private tutors they hire. In your case that's me and other sensei or tutors if you or we decide to hire” She felt a wave of relief, a little excitement and intense nervousness. 

This whole conversation was weird, but just then she had imagined having to enlist in a brothel or something similar. 

Before she could think about this any further he continued. “We start off with theory lessons, we’re also gonna cover genjutsu and some basic poisons. I expect you to lie, sneak, cheat and generally ninja your way out of most situations but sometimes doing the actual deed might be unavoidable. You need the know-how for that but more than anything you need it for genjutsu” There was a slight pause. “Which is why, uh, there's the practical bit” 

To her astonishment, there was a very slight purple tinge on his cheeks.

“Oh my god. You’re blushing. You. Are blushing” Sakura gaped at him. 

He stood up, threw his arms in the air and started pacing “Yes, I’m blushing!” He raked his hands though his hair in agitation. “I’m not even sure why!” Then he went on an angry rant about the normalcy of dicks and vaginas, and Sakura relaxed. She guessed they were both nervous then. 

\---- 

The next day, Kisame stopped by Tsunades office to hand her a copy of the progression plan and to make a request. She took the scroll and opened it, he hoped he wasn’t about to get castrated. 

She finished reading and looked up at him. “This is a good progression plan. Would you mind if I kept this?” 

“Not at all. There is however a slight problem, I’m sure you’ve spotted it” 

The Hokage nodded. 

“There is also the matter of her lightning release. She’s used it a few times now in dangerous ways, I don’t know what mechanics killed the missing nin in Kusa but it sure was something. She needs training” 

“You have someone in mind?” She asked curiously. 

At this, Kisame let out an evil cackle. “Oh yes Hokage-sama, I know just the person”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is bewildered for one reason or another, except Samehada.
> 
> Also. Imagining team Gai bumbling through seduction training, I don't know what to say. 
> 
> Anyway I really enjoyed writing this chapter, thanks for reading!


	12. Push and pull

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura and Kakashi face off. Kisame is equal parts amused and exasperated.

Hatake Kakashi liked to think of himself as being an aloof kind of person, cool, calm, collected. His friends called him ‘cool and hip’, lazy, skilled, other things. 

Standing at attention in his Hokages office today he looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights. Frozen and decidedly spooked, ready to do something unpredictable at any moment. Directly to his right stood his former student, with a disbelieving expression on her face. 

After a moment he slouched, half closed his previously wide eye and drawled “Respectfully, Hokage-sama. I think I it will be better use of my time to be on another team or by myself” He gave Sakura a pitying look as she colored a bit, thinking she was embarrassed. 

Kisame gave Kakashi a pitying look, because the man was an idiot. 

Tsunade smirked “Well, I happen to disagree. However, it’s standard procedure to run a test of skills. I’ll book a training ground and supervise” 

\----

Sakura showed up at the assigned training ground at the specified time. She was armed to the teeth, wakizashi, fixed up tanto, kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, wire- she mentally went through her check list once again. She had even put her hair up in a loose bun, kanzashi in place. 

Tsunade, Kisame and Shikaku were also there, waiting. 20 minutes after the ‘test’ should have started, Kakashi showed up. That was early for him, Sakura thought distractedly. 

He started waffling something about a distressed maiden in need of rescue. 

Tsunade cut off his excuse with a bellow of “Begin!” 

In a move much more characteristic of Naruto, Sakura charged at him directly. Kakashi sighed and started to reach for the book in his rear pouch. Sakura put on a burst of speed, and then she was in his space and she lashed out in a draw-strike with her tanto that left a blue streak of chakra in its wake. As it was, she managed to slash through half the material of his flak jacket before he could escape. The expression on his face was priceless, she pressed forward and he countered her strikes with a kunai in hand. 

He jumped back and weaved a genjutsu that snared one part of Sakura but not the other. A heavily injured Sasuke came stumbling out of the bushes, it was a strange thing, to both see the genjutsu and not. Sakura gave an earsplitting scream. When Kakashi moved in to incapacitate her, Inner effortlessly dispelled the genjutsu and pulled the wakizashi to wield alongside the tanto. 

They clashed a few more times before Kakashi spat an enormous fireball. In the time Sakura used to dodge it he had dissappeared in that annoying way of his. She sheathed her blades. 

_Where the heck is he?!_ Sakura quickly looked around her, no Kakashi. Above? No. Then.. She glared at the ground, jumped up high and sent off half a dozen kunai wrapped in explosive tags with a chakra assisted throw. She watched them sink to the hilt before she let them detonate with a muttered “Boom” 

She smiled sweetly as the ground went flying in all directions, revealing her former sensei. 

“Found you” Her smile turned feral. She crossed her arms over her chest and gathered chakra “Water style: Jellyfish!” A mass of water emerged from her chest and arms and she flung it at Kakashi eyed it and dodged to the side lazily. He had heard how she got that other genin in the exam that time. 

The mas splattered on the ground next to him and then started sprouting long tentacles that looped themselves around his closest arm and leg. Sakura had started running towards him the moment she had cast her jutsu. 

Kakashi tried to jerk himself lose from the puny water restraint, only to find that there was top grade ninja-wire hidden in the tentacles. Sakuras right hook was blocked but she glanced his ear with her left and he cut himself on the tight wire before he could sever it. 

He stepped up his game after that. 

\---- 

The fight was over, Kakashi had won. Sakura was sopping wet, she was bloody, and she listed to the left slightly. Kakashi was still leagues above Sakuras level, she wasn’t surprised but she was pissed. She spat out half a mouthful of blood. 

“She tried to gut me” Kakashi was in shock. He looked rumpled, his clothes were ripped, he had some cuts and scrapes and he was also smoking slightly. Where had his cute student gone? 

“Heh yes, she does that” Kisame said fondly. 

Tsunade clapped her hands and beamed. “Good job, both of you” Sakura bared her bloodied teeth in some attempt at a grin. 

Turning to Kakashi Tsunade handed him an assignment scroll “Congratulations. You are now a part time member of team Kisame” 

Kakashi took the scroll wordlessly and gave a single nod. 

Kisame extended his hand “We look forward to working with you” Kakashi eyed it for a bit, then took his hand and shook it. 

“Well then, looks like we’re back on the same team Sakura-chan” He turned towards her, fake eye-smile in place. 

Sakura crossed her arms. “San” 

“What?” 

“Sakura. San.” She said evenly. “May I be excused, sensei?” She directed this question at Kisame, she felt like a deflating balloon. Just completely defeated and moving towards utter exhaustion. 

“Yeah. Good fight Pinky, meet up tomorrow in training-ground 4 at the usual time” He gave her shoulder a consoling squeeze and she started limping home. 

Kakashi gave Tsunade and Kisame a slightly aggrieved look before he too left. 

\---- 

Training with team Kisame was.. Intense. In every way. The drills they ran were physically draining and they used chakra like nobody’s business, this was par for the course for him really. But then, then there was the tension. 

They had decided that he would train with them 3 times a week for now, some for them all to get to know each other and some to tutor Sakura. 

Since the match and subsequent team assignment, Sakura and Kakashi had been doing some kind of pull and push dance and it was maddening. Sakura would seem to thaw a bit towards him, she would start to relax and be civil. But then the next thing he knew she would be waspish and spiteful. 

Kakashi himself was both a little desperate to be near her -packpackpack- and battling the urge to run for the hills. He would freely admit that the situations this had led to had probably caused some of her waspishness. 

In trying to remember what their dynamic before had been like, he had come to realize that they’d had very little interaction while they were both on team 7. It had been superficial, shallow. Not that he’d gotten very personal with his other students either. 

He sighed. He had made a mess of things as was typical of him. 

“Focus” Intoned Kakashi for the umpteenth time that day. 

“I am focusing!” Said a nettled Sakura. Sparks and arcs flew off her fingers and palms and she lost the mass of electricity she had been holding. 

"Fucking- shit!“ She kicked at the nearest tuft of grass and stomped off towards Kisame muttering insults and curses under her breath. 

Kakashi walked back to where they had dumped their gear. He sat down and watched Sakura duke it out with Kisame. They flew at each other savagely, it was a violent spar even though he could tell that Kisame held back. He couldn't believe this was the same Sakura that used to fear split ends. 

Before long Kisame had her beaten and pinned down. He lingered. Huh. Kakashi supposed this too was part of training. 

Kisame propped his head on his hand, but otherwise leaned his full body weight on Sakura who was thoroughly trapped beneath him.“That was mean and a little uncalled for Pinky. Should i start calling you prickly-chan? My little sea-urchin? Urchin-chan? Hm?” 

Sakura blushed slightly and tried to wriggle free. The achieved effect was not what she had tried for, she was still stuck. Kisame smirked, Sakura pouted. 

Pulling at a lock of her hair that had escaped her ponytail he said “You’re going to have to talk about this at some point, you know. We’re going to be training and running missions together for a good while ” 

Sakura turned her head away defiantly. HE was the one who had abandoned HER, even after all his talk about teammates and scum. 

“He.. He.. “ To her intense annoyance she felt her eyes prickle. She willed the sad feeling away and felt her temper flare instead. “Why” She hissed in a low voice. “He left and he’s not even here willingly. I’m so- argh! And then he’s all- He tries to sniff me or hes all nice or acts like I’m someone but then it’s like I’m no one and nothings changed-” She screwed up her face and breathed deeply. 

Kisame shifted and placed his elbows on either side of her head, his head now leaning on the other hand, blocking her from view. He thumbed away some dirt from her cheek. 

“I get it. It’s still going to need to happen though” 

As she gave him the stink-eye, there was a slight flicker in her field of vision and a small puff of chakra smoke.. Kawarimi?! Then there was a pop as the clone now on top of her burst in to water. Sakura yelped, jumped up and started throwing shuriken at the laughing man across the field from her. 

While Kakashis hearing was nowhere near as good his sense of smell, he had heard. He sighed deeply. Yeah. He was simultaneously grateful and horrified at being on this team. 

\---- 

Seduction training.. Had started. 

Kisame had let her look at his ‘plan’ beforehand, she was sure she had pulled off a full body blush then. It honestly wasn’t too far from what she might have guessed, but seeing the actual written plan made it really real. 

The theory was fascinating, brain, nervous-system, a lot of general anatomy. Interestingly enough, a lot of the target points she had previously learnt to inflict maximum pain were also pleasure points. And then there were all the weird connections. The ankle and the groin for instance, she would never have guessed one could affect the other. 

They had also had a highly embarrassing conversation about her previous experience or lack thereof, and she had been given homework. 

“It’s not a bad thing it’s just how it is, just means we gotta start a ways back” Kisame had said. “So, for homework. I want you to touch yourself. Try to see what you like, use the chart. Find your erogenous zones and experiment a little” 

Sakura could only nod. 

\---- 

Sakura had invited Ino over for wine and gossip, she was also desperate to talk to her about this whole seduction thing. Ino had told her a bit about her own training previously and she was much more experienced. Unlike Sakura, she was working towards a specialization that required advanced skills. 

“Nice. You’ll be doing this with Shark-sensei? I bet he’s buff as hell underneath those clothes” 

“He is” Sakura squeaked, thinking about the things to come. 

“Sakuraaa~ Have you been holding out on me?” Ino looked delighted at this possibly juicy information. “Have you seen all of it? Go on tell Ino-chan all about it" She slung an arm over Sakuras shoulders. 

Sakura gave a loud snort of amusement “Honestly. The man has no shame. I saw him completely starkers multiple times like a few weeks in to our training or something and it’s been a regular occurrence since” 

“And what about Kakashi-sensei?” Ino poured them some more wine and raised a well manicured eyebrow. 

A derisive scoff slipped out of Sakuras mouth. “The man can barely stand to be around me and he is also almost completely covered from top to toe at all times. Even if he wanted to I don’t know what he could bring to the table” 

“I think you might be surprised” Ino mused. “The grapevine says he’s a highly coveted bachelor, maybe he knows his way around a womans body?” 

Sakura really wished she had more control over the blood-flow to her face. She put her hands on her burning cheeks. Wine. More wine. 

“Oh yeah. Here” Said Ino, and stuck a book under her nose. An eyesearing shade of orange. Icha.. Icha.. 

She stared at the book in disbelief. Ino giggled. “Whaaat. They’re not half bad if you manage to look past the heaving bosoms, exploding nipples and whatnot” 

“E-exploding nipples?” 

Ino waved her hand dismissively “You’ll see. Anyway it’s a good tool for a beginner, and they’re filled with action and soppy romance to boot” 

Well, it wasn't like she had to read this in public. An image of Kakashi floated to the forefront of her brain and she tried to will it away.

Interpreting her silence as worry, Ino clapped her cheek and gave her a soft smile "You'll be fine, Sakura"

Thank god for friends.


	13. Repentance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is it possible to swallow a lemon? 
> 
> Does Kakashi have intestinal worms? 
> 
> It's too late at night for me to think up a half decent summary for this chapter sorry sorry

Bright, pulsating silencing seals were in effect in the Hokages office today. 

“So you’re telling me..” Jiraya pinched the bridge of his nose. “That Danzo has been running some kind of guerrilla operation in the village, AND he’s been meddling in foreign affairs?” 

Tsunades reply was grim-faced. “Yes, it seems so” Sake, she needed more sake. “Going by old records and rumors, he’s been at it since before the third shinobi war as far as we can tell” 

“..Sensei must have known” A deep frown appeared on his face and he released a sigh. Tsunade only grimaced in response. 

“What a mess” He sat down. “And the seal?” 

“We don't know too much about it yet” Tsunade said. “It keeps the carrier from speaking or otherwise giving away information, presumably about Root and Danzo. It does have a mind-blocking agent, but Inoichi was able to find a few holes -which is why we were able to identify the missing Uchiha” ... “You’ll take a look at it?” 

Jiraya was the closest Konoha came to having a seals-master. A specialist from the barrier team whom Shikaku had vouched for had done his best but ultimately they had been too afraid to set it off to do any more than map it out. 

“Of course, hime” 

“Good. I’ll take you to him” Said Tsunade. “I’m also assigning you another genin” 

“..Sorry?” Jiraya stuck his pinky in his ear and wiggled it as though he must have heard wrong. 

“A genin” She repeated, and held out a folder to him. He eyed it uncertainly. Him taking on Naruto had been his own decision, his students son.. He had been driven by guilt and sentimentality. This was different. 

He caught Tsunades hard gaze, it seemed that this was not a request from his former teammate and long-time crush. This, was an order from his Hokage, he had been more or less exempt from those the last 10 years. He considered protesting, but in light of other events he could see why this was a pressing matter. He wasn’t sure he would survive such a thing anyway, Tsunade looked about ready to start tearing peoples spines out their asses. 

He reached out slowly, reluctantly, and took the folder. 

Almost as soon as he had opened it he felt his eyebrows start to climb his forehead. Uzumaki? 

Shutting the folder, he walked over to the small sofa in the corner of the room and made himself comfortable. This was going to take a while. 

Elsewhere in Konoha, a somewhat menacing-looking pinkhaired ninja was walking sluggishly in the direction of the Yamanaka clan compound. 

Sakura was so tired, she had zapped herself and both her sensei multiple times today.. Which would have been great if she’d meant to, but she hadn’t. Oh well. At least she was doing well with genjutsu. Though why a genjutsu that in reality worked like some kind of item-henge was called a ‘Demonic illusion’ she had no idea. 

Something rushed at her, she was tired but also wired after training and failed to suppress the reflexive dodge and punch. She blinked. “..Naruto?” 

He sat up and rubbed at his cheek, a hurt look on his face. “Sa.. Sakura-chan" 

“When did you get back? I mean, uh, welcome back” She smiled softly. She had missed him, even if she hadn’t thought of him all that much lately. 

He got to his feet and looked her over “Wow Sakura, you look.. Really cool but kind of beat up uhhh?” 

Was it a compliment? “Thank you, you got really tall. I like the new jumpsuit” Naruto grinned 

At this point their conversation was interrupted because Konohamaru and his posse came running to greet their idol. Naruto seemed more interested in them than her, she supposed she didn’t mind terribly but it was.. Annoying. She backed up a bit and sat down by a wall. When they started with the sexy-jutsus Sakura watched and made mental notes. Jiraya certainly seemed to have covered this part of his training thoroughly, and Naruto wasn’t even chunin yet! 

“Have you seen Kakashi-sensei at all?” Naruto stuffed his mouth full of ramen and looked at her expectantly while he chewed. The kids had gone thank god, Naruto and Konohamaru sure made a racket. 

“Um, well.. Yes actually. We’re on the same team” She scowled at her ramen. 

“Cool, cool. I never saw him with a sword before, is he any good?” 

Sakura looked up from her bowl “I.. Don’t know? My sensei is, uh, Hoshigaki Kisame. He’s also team leader, Kakashi is with us part-time teaching me some things and doing missions with us. We’re leaving for another mission tomorrow actually" 

The slurping of noodles stopped. “Hoshigaki... Kisame..? Who’s that?” He looked thoughtful for a second before he resumed his eating “Mph, whass he gonna do when we get Sasuke back and team 7 reunites? Can we do 5 man teams?” 

Sakura didn’t know what to say to that. Sasuke.. She wasn’t sure when it had happened, but at some point Sasuke had become less of a priority. She supposed she had been busy with other things. The rejection and general disaster of the day he had left still stung, but that weird and slightly desperate longing for him had gone. What would it be like if he returned? 

She fished out some vegetables from her bowl, stuffed them in her mouth and gave a noncommittal “Hmm” to avoid answering. She wouldn’t trade away Kisame-sensei that was for damn sure, the likelihood of team 7 reuniting was probably slim to none anyway. 

Naruto seemed to interpret her non-answer as some sort of agreement, and he switched to regaling her with tales of his great adventures on the road with Jiraya the pervert. 

After two bowls and many tales she told him she needed to go home to prepare and rest for the mission ahead. In truth she had already packed, but she really was exhausted. She fell asleep almost before her head hit her pillow. 

\---- 

Jiraya was once again in the Hokages office. He had answered the summons and arrived to find not only the Hokage and Shizune, but also the council of elders and who he now knew to be Uzumaki Karin. 

“Council, Jiraya, this is Uzumaki Karin. Karin arrived from Kusa a while back, she has been granted citizenship and status as Konoha genin” 

“I see" Said Koharu tartly. 

Karin rubbed at her arms in discomfort, Danzo followed the movement with interest “Why were we not notified of this when she arrived? What skills does she possess?” He asked. 

Ignoring this rude interruption, Tsunade went on. “Considering her heritage, It has been decided that she will join Naruto as a student under Jiraya-san. She will also be working on her healing skills part-time with me” 

The council of elders had traditionally had a hand in approving or denying team formations and team sensei, and it was immediately clear by their affronted expressions that they considered this decision to be a great overstep. 

“May we see her file, please” Homura reached out expectantly. Tsunade had to make effort to keep her face neutral. She would rather not, but she had no choice really considering they were still officially in an ‘advisory capacity’ and she handed the folder over. 

The interest of the council as they looked through the recorded information was almost tangible. 

“Tsunade-sama, it would be most unfortunate to place the only two known surviving Uzumaki on the same team. They potentially have valuable bloodline traits and this one ” Danzo gestured to Karin “Has known unique powers that we must harvest for the good of Konoha” 

Karin shrunk in on herself and attempted to blend in with the furniture. 

“There is also the matter of possible previously thought lost knowledge in regards to the Uzumaki sealing style” Chimed in Homura. 

“I could take her in” They all turned to Danzo. “I was the student of the Nidaime, after all. I would also be capable of keeping her safe from potential harm” The look on his face was that of a kind grandfather. Tsunade suppressed a shiver. 

“Thank you for your kind offer, councilman. I will however have to decline. She will serve as a ninja of Konoha. She will work with Jiraya on seals and skills in general, and she will work with me in regards to developing a sustainable way to use her healing powers” 

Danzo looked a bit like he had swallowed a lemon “Very well” he said. Tsunade rubbed at her temples, this discussion was probably not over. 

\---- 

When Naruto met Karin.. It was a beautiful day. 

Naruto blinked at her questioningly when he caught her eye. Karin stared back, half in awe of the ball of light that was his chakra and half in fright of what seemed to be a ball of malice right alongside it. 

“Naruto, this is Uzumaki Karin. She will be joining our team. Karin, this is Uzumaki Naruto” Jiraya said this in a rush and hastily stepped back. 

“Uzumaki.. Karin?” Naruto had known very little about his origins and had long since given up on the hope that maybe some day some family member would come for him. This wasn’t exactly that, but he had dreamed of family his whole life. “We’re.. Family?” He said, voice brimming with hope. 

“Probably like, distant cousins?” Karin looked a bit wrong-footed, she picked nervously at a spot on her chin. Jiraya supposed he could have given her heads up but where was the fun in that? Before she could do or say anything else, Naruto had moved in to hug her. She patted his back a little awkwardly while he sobbed unashamedly on her shoulder. She looked pleadingly at Jiraya who only crossed his arms and leaned back on the nearest wall.  
After a while, Naruto drew back and rubbed furiously at his eyes “S-sorry” He said. “I thought I was the only one left.. Do you like ramen?” 

“I, ah, yes?” The way she said it made it sound as though she was unsure. 

Naruto beamed at her, hooked his arm through hers and started pulling her along, raving about the awesomeness that was Ichiraku ramen. 

Jiraya felt another pang of guilt watching the two walk away. Hiruzen had seemingly made a lot of mistakes, but he himself wasn’t without blame either. He should have come home sooner. 

\----  
\---- 

Somewhere deep in the land of Waterfalls Kisame yawned and stretched till he felt his back pop. Thank god that was over. 

Missions with team Kisame plus one in the form of Kakashi made up about half of their missions these days. This was relatively uncomplicated as they were all professionals, but the continuing tension between Kakashi and Sakura did put a strain on things all the same. 

The mission had been grueling. A search and destroy type, Sakuras first. She had done a lot of missions and knew ninja business was dirty and bloody, but nothing she had done so far had hammered this in quite as good as hunting and cutting down a group of foreign rebels as though they were no more than pigs for slaughter. 

Sakura and Kakashi were still doing some kind of love aggravation upset care whatever-the-hell-the-flavor-of-the-hour-was-circus. 

Kisame had gone from dropping not so subtle hints to the both of them to flat out telling them to get over themselves and talk it out. 

“Get over yourself and talk it out” He grumbled at Kakashi after Sakura had stomped off angrily, he wasn’t even sure what had set her off this time but this was getting ridiculous. 

“I’m taking first watch” He shoved Kakashi hard in the back as he went to find a spot with good overview to spend the next few hours in. 

Kakashi checked the traps and then went to lay down, he sighed discreetly in an attempt to calm what felt like a mass of writhing worms in his stomach. Sakura was curled up in her bedroll a good arms-length from him, back turned. 

He cleared his throat quietly. "I, uh. Wanted to come find you.. After.. After the boys left." .... "But I was.." Kakashi sighed. "And then I got re-drafted in to Anbu and I just let it.. I just didn't.." He stopped speaking and tried to gather his thoughts, rubbed a hand over his face. "I tend to run from my feelings, and I was feeling.. Uh.." He looked at his hands and frowned, why was he so bad at this? He was good with words, could talk people in to believing or doing the most far-fetched things. 

Sakura did not turn around but she did deign to reply. "When you left too, I was all alone” 

Kakashi shut his eye, her voice was level but he could smell her tears even with the mask on. "I know, I'm so sorry, Sakura" She didn't stir, or speak. Kakashi got out of his bedroll, picked it up and laid it out next to hers. Gods he was so bad at this stuff. He laid back down, arm not quite touching her back but almost. 

“You reminded me of someone, she died” 

"I.." He swallowed around the dryness in his throat. He wanted to tell her about what happened to Rin, about the self-loathing and fear he had felt at the similarities between the two girls. Of course.. They weren't really very similar at all, just his brain connecting random dots. It was a feeble excuse anyway. He settled for shuffling sideways a bit and closing the distance, trying for silent support. When she didn't immediately flinch away he counted it as a win. 

“I was wrong” He sighed deeply. “I neglected your training and it was wrong” 

No response. But he thought she leaned back on his arm slightly. He’d take it, if he was honest he had half expected to block a kunai to the gut given her numerous past attempts at disemboweling him. He really wasn’t sure how to fix things but this was progress for sure. 

They all pretended nothing was amiss when Sakura had to extract herself from under his arm to take second watch. 

\----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a struggle, it just did not want to come out. Whef.
> 
> I have to say I'm so thankful, every time there's a new kudo or bookmark or comment I do an internal fistpump like yesss readers! Anyway thanks for all the love <3


	14. Lessons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre-christmas workload is killing me so this chapter is a bit short, but at least it's a little juicy.

Team Kisame had returned from their mission and had been enjoying their days off apart. 

Sakura hadn’t forgiven Kakashi by any stretch of the imagination but she was feeling a little better about it all. He had opened up a bit and while his attempt at explaining his actions had been stilted and awkward to the point of almost unintelligible, she was at least sure that he was sorry for how he had behaved. 

She didn’t really know much about him now that she came to think about it, maybe she should go bother Ino to look him up in the clan bingo-book sometime? Walking on towards her destination she wondered yet again who this “someone” she had reminded him of was. 

As she arrived at the tall building that housed a number of Konohas Jonin she abruptly remembered that she had other things to worry about today. 

Sakura knocked on Kisames door, she wrung her hands nervously while she waited. What was taking him so long?! They had a scheduled training session today, she wasn’t early was she? There wasn’t much room to pace outside his door, but she managed to do so anyway. She could hear Inners exasperated mumbling in the back of her head, telling her to calm down. 

There was the sound of a lock being undone and she froze comically in mid stride. Kisame opened the door, because of course he did, she had knocked! 

He took one look at her, stepped up behind her, put his hands on her shoulders and walked her inside before he shut the door. “A little nervous, are we?” He rubbed gently at her shoulders while they stood in the tiny hallway. She felt like an idiot, they had been over this. “Yes, I am” She slumped back slightly and he let her lean on him. She was also somewhat excited, but those words just would not leave her mouth. 

“Come on, go have a seat and I’ll make us some tea” He left her there and went to the kitchen area. 

Sakura took her sandals off and went to sit on the sofa. She tried to calm her nerves as she watched him pour hot tea in to two cups. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, they had known each other for a long time at this point but now.. They were going to get to know each other.. Intimately. 

This wasn’t like seeing him naked while bathing, or embracing, although.. Now that she thought about it, she supposed they were pretty physical with each other in general.. A little handsy, even possibly slightly inappropriate lately. Huh. 

The sofa dipped next to her, Kisame handed her one of the cups and lifted the arm closest to her invitingly. She scooted close and he put his arm down over her shoulders. “Wanna talk?” 

Sakura thought about it while blowing at her tea and taking small sips. Did she want to talk? Once she deemed it cool enough she drank deeply from her brew, it was her favorite, peach tea. She was still nervous, but she wasn’t sure there was anything that could be said to dispel that. 

She took another fortifying gulp of tea, put her half empty cup on the table and straddled his thighs shyly. “No..” She said in a quiet voice. She was almost sat on his knees so Kisame put his own cup down, put his hands on her hips and pulled her in a bit. 

"...." 

Then he sat back and closed his eyes. She blinked in surprise, all of a sudden this felt a lot less intimidating and she felt herself relax a bit. 

She leaned in and studied his face, nothing she hadn’t seen before but she wasn’t usually this close to it. She reached out and carefully carded her fingers through his hair, it was really soft. She wondered if he normally used products, shed never seen him put any in it but it was usually standing much more on end. Maybe it was the forehead protector? 

Her fingers trailed down and over his gills, they were still fascinating and she couldn’t help but run her fingers gently over them a few times. She hesitated for a second and then went down to his mouth, she swiped her thumb across his bottom lip once before pulling it down. Kisame smiled slightly and then opened his mouth obligingly. 

She peered in curiously, he had a big mouth and even without counting she could tell that he had a lot more teeth than her. She touched a few of the ones at the front, they were pointy but not really sharp as she had assumed they would be, and those were definitely molars in the back of his mouth. She then went on to his throat, his neck neck and his shoulder. She paused at the second set of gills before feeling her way down his very muscled arm. 

Deciding to move things along a bit, Kisame moved his hands to the small of her back and leaned forwards to rest his head on her shoulder. Testing the waters so to speak, he turned his head and placed a kiss on her neck above the collar of her kimono top. 

After an initial pause, she put her hands on his chest and tilted her head slightly. He kissed her throat again then and hooked a finger in her collar and pulled to get at her neck. Sakuras breath caught in her throat at the sensational things he was doing with his mouth and she moved her hands from his shirt to his hair. 

She let him go on for a bit, his hair tickled the side of her face and she took a deep breath. God he smelled good, maybe this sniffing business had some merit after all. She pulled his hair and when his face was level with hers she kissed him. It was a short kiss, but then his hands were on her butt and he pulled her slowly to him. She gasped as her crotch dragged over what was clearly his very hard penis. His eyes weren’t shut anymore, he was watching her keenly. 

When she was so close she was practically plastered to him he wrapped his arms tightly around her and kissed her in a way that made her toes curl. It felt wonderful and Sakuras low key want turned up several notches. They kissed again and again and then his tongue was in her mouth and she met it with her own, her breathing sped up and she clenched her thighs. 

She moved against him in a tiny motion and he hummed lowly in to the kiss before returning the gesture by pressing her down and shifting his hips slightly. It sent little jolts of pleasure racing up through her core, she was so hot, why were they wearing all these clothes again? She was just moving to sneak her hands under his shirt when there was a knocking sound on his window, Sakura turned towards it so fast she felt her neck crick. A bird?? 

”Ahh” He sighed and let his head drop to her shoulder briefly before sitting back up. “Well this is probably a good time to end todays session anyway” Kisame said in a husky voice, she looked back at him and felt a thrill go through her at the look on his face. He looked a bit like he might be considering eating her. Then he smiled. “I would have preferred some time for, ah, chatting or cuddling or whatever. But unfortunately duty calls” 

He grabbed her hips and lifted her off him. “Go get your mission pack and your blades, meet me in Tsunades office as soon as you can” Sakura stared as he put a hand down his pants to adjust himself, then grabbed his long-sleeved shirt, Jonin vest and forehead protector. “Go on, we answer our summons in a timely manner” He pecked the side of her throat and smacked her butt playfully while ushering her towards the door. Sakura would have responded but she felt a bit like she had some kind of internal whiplash going on. 

Without further ado she pulled on her sandals and sped off to get her things. 

\---- 

When she arrived in the Hokages office it was to Find Kisame, Kakashi, Jiraya, Naruto and Karin already there. She greeted everyone, sent Karin a beaming smile and a wave which Karin returned a little uncertainly, and then she went to stand between Kakashi and Kisame. 

Kisame gave a wide grin in greeting, but Kakashi merely looked like he had a toothache or something. She peered at the visible triangle of face, yeah it was kind of difficult to make out what the expression was but he was looking a little weird for sure. He had been staring at Kisame when she walked in, now he was staring at her, then he turned to Kisame again briefly and back to her. Huh? 

Jiraya was eyeing Kakashi with some concern “Uh. You feeling okay there, Kakashi?” 

Kakashi seemed to realize that he was the focus of everyones attention and he dropped down in to his usual slouch before shoving his hands in his pockets. ”Fine. Perfectly fine” 

“Hoooooh-kayyyy..” Jiraya was not convinced. 

They all jumped at a loud bang and turned their attention to the Hokage who had put a decent sized dent in her desk. “Now we’re all here. I have received an emergency request from Sunagakure. The Kazekage has been kidnapped” 

Complete silence, then. “WHAT?! GAARA WAS?! WHO?! WE GOTTA GO NOW TSUNADE-GRANNY-” And Naruto went on and on. Sakura was confused, did Gaara and Naruto know each other? She knew they had fought but this didn’t really make sense. 

“QUIET!” Tsunade roared. Jiraya hastily clapped a hand over Narutos mouth when he showed signs of being unwilling to comply. 

“I’m dispatching you all to help, Suna has suffered a large scale attack by an unknown force, they have a lot of casualties and they’re still taking care of things in-village. Kankuro was in pursuit but has been found injured and incapacitated, Temari currently has command in the village” Tsunade handed a mission scroll to Jiraya. “Go. Assess the situation when you get there. Do what you can and send for backup if you need it. You leave now, good luck” 

They all bowed and set out towards Sunagakure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry christmas 🥰


	15. The land of wind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teams Jiraya and Kisame travel to Sunagakure. 
> 
> Jiraya tries to impart sagely advice upon Kakashi, this goes about as well as could be expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This thing wouldn't let me change my spacing after i started editing to post it, arf. (It's probably some idiotic error on my part, but I give up for now) Aaanyway. 'post'

It was a rushed trip but they had to have a few breaks to eat and sleep a little, there was no point arriving and being useless. Naruto of course fought every break tooth and nail prompting Jiraya to take him to task repeatedly. Kakashi was still behaving weirdly, Sakura wasn’t sure what to make of it. 

Naruto, Karin and Sakura were sound asleep. Kisame had watch. Kakashi laid in his bedroll and stared at the sky, if only he could turn off his brain. Jiraya who had just been relieved by Kisame came to lay down too. 

“Why so tense Kakashi? You need to get some rest, we have some hectic days ahead of us, search and rescue probably. High likelihood of combat given the situation” 

Kakashi gave him a blank look before answering “It’s nothing, honestly” He glanced at Sakuras sleeping form. His two teammates had reeked of each other back in Tsunades office, each other and.. Arousal, a lot of it. He wasn’t sure why this was such a shock to him, but it was. 

“Say no more” Jiraya patted his shoulder sympathetically, what was the man on about, he hadn’t said anything! “She’s become quite the hottie hasn’t she, having a hard time with the transition?” 

“What? No I-” Yes, yes she had. Yes, yes he was. 

Jiraya, completely uncaring of his reluctance on the topic plowed on. “She’s become a sexual creature, I get it. Must be strange being that you were her sensei in her early years” 

Kakashi let out an indistinguishable sound. He hadn’t really been much of a sensei had he.. But that was besides the point! He shook his head as though he could rid himself of his thoughts this way. His previous bond to her, whatever kind of murky bond it had been -was changing, had been changing. 

“And how’s she dealing with it all? Chunin, has she gone on any honeypot missions yet?” Jiraya said this casually, lightly even, but it hit Kakashi like a donkey kick to the chest. Hoh-Honeypot?! The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he felt his lips curl, baring his teeth underneath his mask. Logically he knew that shinobi did those kinds of missions, had even done quite a few himself. This did not help in the slightest. 

Kakashi pressed his palms to his eye sockets before stiffly getting out of his bedroll. This conversation was over and Jiraya was most certainly not ‘getting it’ in any sense of the term. Kakashi would be lucky to get any shuteye at all after this lovely chat. He walked over to Sakuras sleeping form, studiously ignoring the long low whistle Jiraya let out and laid down at her back. 

Ok Kakashi, he thought to himself, there’s no use obsessing over this now on the way to this very important mission. He started going through the list of methods to calm himself that his psychologist had drilled in to him over the years. Label his feelings, no- no- bad bad idea. Thinking it through, also no. Release.. No. Change focus. Breathe. He pulled aggressively at his mask, stuck his nose in Sakuras messy hair bun and started taking deep breaths to calm himself. It smelt mostly of her. 

He closed his eyes and focused on separating just that one scent from the others and was able to relax a bit, after a while he felt himself drift off in to that half-sleep state he usually defaulted to when resting on missions. 

Sakura was not displeased to find herself with a warm person at her back upon waking, but when she turned around and came nose to chin with Kakashi she was a little surprised. When she looked up and realized he was half unmasked she was a lot surprised. It wasn’t a great view but she felt her face warm a bit anyway. She could kind of see the underside of his nose and some cheek, and there was a darker blur on her right that might be the lower part of the scar that bisected his hidden eye. Damn it she was too close to see anything properly! Just as she leaned back for a better view he pulled his mask up quick as a flash and all that met her eyes was the usual black cloth and single eye. 

Sakura gave an exaggerated pout that made the eye in front of her curve in what was probably a smile. There was a brief feeling of nostalgia and a slight tinge of bitterness as she tried to remember when the last time team 7 had tried to unmask him was. 

Mentally shaking herself she sat up still in her bedroll, grabbed her bag and fished around in it for some of those nasty rationbars. Better eat now before they had to start running again. She haphazardly tossed a few over her shoulder at Kakashi, and shot a glance over at where Kisame-sensei was waking Naruto and Karin. Jiraya had them covered, he was already on his way over. She repacked her bag and munched away on her rations listening to Kakashi doing the same. 

Before long everyone was up, fed and watered and it was time to go.  
\----

Sand, sand, scorpions, snakes and wind and more sand. Sakura wrapped the end of her shawl over her lower face again, it was kind of unpleasant but hey less chance of sunburn and unexpected sand in her mouth and nose. The weather was ok, but every once in a while great gusts of wind would appear out of nowhere and they carried with them, yes, sand. 

“We’re not far off now. Hopefully the fight within the city itself is not still ongoing, but be prepared for combat anyway” Jiraya said. Sakura unconsciously pulled at her harness, everything was in place. 

They could see the large hole in the structure surrounding the city long before they reached it. 

At their arrival they were met by sand genin and escorted to the round building in the center of the city that housed the office of the Kazekage. 

On the way there they got to see the damage done to the village. There was a lot of destruction and Sakura wondered if there had been summons like what Orochimaru had used during the konoha crush. Then they started seeing bodies.. Or.. Were they bodies? They looked more like strange dolls, or clay figures? Some were kind of people shaped, but others were grossly deformed. Could they be puppets? 

She remembered the strange suna guy with the purple face paint from her first chunin exam, he had used a puppet hadn't he? Sakura let her eyes rove over their surroundings while they walked.

Upon entering the Kazekage’s office they were met by a grim-faced Temari and Baki. The office was was a handsome space with lots of round windows, bookshelves, a small table and sofa and a large desk. 

“Teams Jiraya and Kisame from Konoha reporting for duty, Temari-hime" Jiraya said in an uncharacteristically serious voice. 

“Welcome. Thank you for coming so quickly” Temari-hime? Sakura wasn't sure what exactly made someone a hime, but she was the sister of the Kazekage so that made sense, probably. She would stick to calling her Temari-sama though. 

Jiraya gave a nod “Of course, how can we best help?” 

Temari and Baki exchanged looks. It was Baki who spoke first “We were completely overrun. We sent out squads after Gaara as soon as we could but we haven’t heard back from any of them, we have to assume that they are no longer in play. Kankuro as you know also failed to retrieve him” Bakis mouth was a thin line, he looked exhausted and Temari picked up where he left off. 

“It was Sasori of the red sands and an accomplice that took Gaara, there were also those white things -they just popped up all over the village and started attacking people. We haven’t had the capacity to examine them so we don’t really know much other than witness reports" Temaris face fell then and she took a deep breath. "Kankuro is in a bad way, he was poisoned. He must have caught up to Sasori at some point. We haven't been able to speak to him since he was brought back due to the effects of the poisoning so we don't really know much about what happened there either..” 

Jiraya turned to Karin. “Kankuro is the Kazekages older brother, do you think you could take a look at him, Karin?” 

Karin fidgeted. Take a look at indeed, let him bite her more like. “I-I uh, I don’t know that it’ll help much” Temari turned eyes full of hope on her. “Please, anything you could try. Our medics have had no success so far” Naruto too turned her way “You know medical ninjutsu?! That’s awesome! Please do your best!” He grabbed her hands and she crumpled under this onslaught of furious optimism and pressure. 

“F-fine” Karin made a face and rubbed at her left arm. It was not fine, she couldn’t wait to get started on her training with Tsunade. Getting bitten hurt and it felt deeply uncomfortable, like someone was sucking her insides out through wherever they had sunk their teeth in her. It also left her temporarily weakened and she hated it. 

She let herself be led off to a sickbay anyway, Jiraya went in with her and they locked the door behind them.  


\----

The waiting-area was a hallway with a long bench by the wall, and they were sat there like ducks in a row. 

Sakura had been trying to make small-talk with Kakashi when an old hag appeared. 

The hag shouted that the white fang had killed her son, and then she moved to attack Kakashi. The man himself looked rooted to the spot, so Naruto went to intercept and so did Sakura, glowing tanto in hand. This lady was presumably a sand citizen so Sakura only swung at her outstretched arms to deter further attack. The hag dodged much too easily for a woman her age, an expression of utter fury and shock on her face. Then another person who called her ‘sister’ held her back and asked her to take a closer look and reminding her that the white fang had died long ago. 

What in the world..? 

The hag laughed and announced that she was not going senile -she was just kidding. Sakura sheathed her blade but did not drop her guard, this lady was dangerous. Naruto sat back down and turned to Kakashi 

“Kakashi-sensei, who’s the white fang?” 

Kakashi who had also sat down looked up from his copy of Icha Icha paradise but did not close it. “Oh, uh, I guess he would best be described as.. My father” A pregnant silence followed this revelation of personal information from their very private teacher.

Kakashis father? Sakura had heard of the white fang of Konoha but she hadn’t heard his actual name and she didn’t know of this close connection to Kakashi. He was a disgraced war hero, who killed himself a long time ago. She wondered how old Kakashi had been at the time, must have been young. 

Kakashi didn’t seem too keen on talking about this, and was saved from having to come up with any lame excuses when the door to the sickbay opened to reveal Karin and Jiraya. 

“How is he?” Temari asked as she rushed in to the room. Nobody answered. They all followed her in at a more sedate pace. 

Karin looked a little pale but mostly ok, when Naruto took her hand and have it a squeeze she sagged against him. The two went and sat down out of the way and Naruto started plying her with water and rations. 

Kankuro was clearly still ill, but the awful thrashing they had been witness to when Jiraya and Karin went in had stopped. 

Karin bit her lip where she was sitting, everyone seemed relieved but she knew that the problem had not been fixed. Not really. 

Jiraya was speaking to Temari in low tones, while Kakashi got information about the attackers from Kankuro who was now conscious and more or less lucid. 

Kankuro unsealed what looked like a pile of sticks and pulled out a piece of cloth from it which he gave to Kakashi. Kakashi took the cloth, stepped back, cut his finger and went through handsigns for a summoning. When the smoke cleared, 8 dogs with vests and forehead-protectors on had appeared, one of which matched the ornamental pug on Sakuras shelf. No.way. 

“Yo, Kakashi” The cute pug, it spoke! A tiny excited squealing sound escaped Sakura before she could stop it. “Oh my god you’re adorable” she whisper-shouted at the tiny dog. 

“Thank you, uh, pink-girl" He sniffed the hand she held out with interest, then he sniffed further up and gave Kakashi a quizzical look. 

“Sorry, but we have to get going. I’ll summon you later for introductions” Kakashi was using his business voice and he had a steely no nonsense glint in his eyes. The pug and all the rest of the dogs sat at attention immediately. 

He held out the piece of fabric Kankuro had given him and the dogs started sniffing it vigorously “I need you to track down this scent, the trail won’t be fresh but we know where to start” He pointed to a spot on a map that he had seemingly pulled out of nowhere. “Don’t get spotted, the people we're tracking are presumably S-rank hostiles, we’ll follow as soon as you have a direction” The dogs all gave woofs of affirmation and scattered.  
\----

As they were about to head out, the hag – Chiyo, who had attacked Kakashi while they were waiting for Karin and Jiraya, re-appeared. She jumped right off a building to tell them all that she wanted to see her cute grandson again, the grandson being Sasori of the red sands, and that as a retired shinobi she really could do what she wanted. 

Baki, Temari and the few others who had followed them to the village entrance all wore similar long-suffering expressions on their faces. It made Sakura wonder if this kind of thing was a regular occurrence. After a brief discussion, all the sensei agreed that Chiyo should come. Sakura had already suspected that she had to be strong despite her advanced age, and this confirmed it. 

They chased the trail and as the scent trail informed them that they were closing in, they found trouble in the form of more of those white clay things. Live ones this time. 

“What the hell are they?!” Shouted Karin as she dodged yet another one trying to.. Eat her? Trap her? She really wasn’t sure what but the way it had just opened up to swallow her like some kind of bizarre flytrap was hella creepy. The creatures had plenty of chakra and they were human shaped but they clearly were _not_ all the way human. She kicked off of its head and propelled herself out of the way. 

Naruto was fighting with taijutsu and shouting questions at them, while they weren’t answering his queries about Gaara they did seem to be sentient enough to understand him. Kisame unceremoniously mowed down a group of them swinging the Samehada, which Sakura noted, had grown a bit again. Sakura rather thought Kisame had the right idea, there were a lot of these things and where had they been hiding anyway?? 

Jiraya signaled for them to gather and they all complied. He then jumped up, turned all the way around in the air and spewed some yellow-brownish substance over all the surrounding enemies. It was pretty gross, a bit like watching someone vomit violently, but it hindered their momentum. Then Jiraya set them on fire and the air was full of screams. 

Naruto clapped his hands over his ears and screamed too, Karin looked like she might be sick and Sakura wasn’t feeling great either. Kisame erected a water barrier around the group, then he grabbed both girls wrists. Jiraya had a job calming Naruto down, Sakura knew that he’d had a rough childhood but she wondered how much he had seen or done on his travels with his sensei. Regardless it was apparent that other peoples pain was terrible to him. His screaming subsided to sobbing and by the time the white things had gone quiet so had he. Kisame let the barrier go and the water put out some of the fire allowing them to pass the remains. 

Kakashi nudged one of the creatures with his foot, it stank. Some kind of fleshy substance and wood. He sneezed violently, damn smoke. He whistled for his ninken who had taken cover as ordered when the hostiles appeared and they continued to follow the trail until they arrived by some large rocks surrounded by water. In the center of the largest rock they could see what looked to be a large boulder. 

“The trail ends here, we’ve checked around the area and it doesn’t leave this rock. They must be inside” Pakkun said, he made a leap and landed on the blockage, it rippled like it was coated in water. A barrier seal. 

Kakashi, Naruto and Jiraya made the jump to the wall as well and Karin rolled up her sleeves, finally something on this mission she could at least feel half competent at. 

The note carrying the seal was quite visible once they were close to it. 

Karin stared at it intently, she formed one half of a bird seal with one hand, and focused her chakra to the other “Secret technique: Reveal!” As she slapped her hand to the note, the seal matrix unraveled and revealed itself in it's entirety across the rocky surface. 

Kisame, Sakura and Chiyo watched as the other four huddled and discussed the best way to counter the seal. Someone brought out an ink pot and Karin cut her hand to add blood to it. Naruto made a bunch of clones. 

“An Uzumaki, eh?” Chiyo sounded mildly impressed. “Haven't seen one around since that Red Hot-Blooded Habanero kunoichi of yours. She was a menace on the battlefield, any relation?” 

Kisame felt his face stretch in a fake smile. “No, no relation” He supposed this wasn’t technically lying, but there was still an active gag order on the subject. She hadn’t even asked about Naruto, she was asking about Karin. Wasn’t like he couldn’t lie anyway, he just really disliked it. 

“Two, actually” Sakura corrected. Seeing Chiyos look of confusion Sakura clarified. “There are two Uzumaki” She pointed to Karin and then to Naruto. Chiyo squinted and hmmed “Blondie is an Uzumaki?” 

Kisame could see the wheels turning in the old ladys head, it had been known publicly that Kushina was Minatos wife and he blanched as both kunoichi turned to him “Ah” He held up his hands in defense. “I’m afraid I can’t discuss this any further” He said this in a rush before blurting out “Samehada needs more bandages” Smooth, real smooth Kisame. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his own antics. He turned on his heel and marched to a rock where he sat down. 

“Uh, sensei?” Sakura had climbed up on the rock too, Kisame had pulled Samehada off his back but there were no new bandages to wrap it with. 

The sword was giving off an air of exasperation, Sakura had no idea how this was even remotely possible but she patted it gently all the same. There was a prickling sensation in her fingers and the sword gave a small wobble. 

Further conversation was halted when Jiraya signaled that they were good to go. That had been some quick work. Sakura couldn't quite make out what was what, but she could see that there was a new outer layer as well as additions within.

Karin stayed by the seal matrix, the others readied themselves at a safe distance. 

She looked it over one last time, laid both hands on the new seal and pushed chakra in to it. The seal lit up and crept on to the original seal, and as it did the older seal started to shrivel and shrink. Karin then slapped an unholy number of explosive tags on the rock slab, darted over to the rest of the group and blew the blockage sky high. 

The moment the air had cleared of the larger chunks of rock, the group of shinobi rushed inside. They were just in time to catch a glimpse of something huge and monstrous with a gapung maw and number of eyes before it disappeared in a blast of smoke. This left what looked like two males, a number of those white things and a motionless Gaara. 

“GAARA! WHAT HAVE YOU BASTARDS DONE TO HIM?!” Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs. 

“Hm. Sasori my man, looks like we have some interesting company”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes Karin knows some stuff.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Showdown in the land of wind.
> 
> Kakashi feels faint. 
> 
> Kisame spills some beans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We start the new year with a bang! The explosive kind for now.

The white things charged at the intruding shinobi as soon as they entered the cave, and they leapt in to action. All except Chiyo. She only had eyes for the hunched figure standing in the back. 

“What are you doing here, old lady” The strange looking character grouched. 

“Tutt tutt, what kind of way is that to speak to your dear old grandmother after all these years” Chiyo said this mockingly, but Sakura saw her face soften slightly as she spoke. 

His blonde.. Partner? Accomplice? Was shifting on his feet and watching the interaction uncertainly. “Sasori, you know this old bag? She’s brought some troublesome company, yeah” His eyes darted between Jiraya, Kisame and Kakashi. A sannin and two S-ranked Jonin was not great news.

The whole group was gathered again in the time it took Sasori and Chiyo to finish talking. They had disposed of the white things quickly, unlike before there had only been a few in the cave. “I know him” Kisame said to the group at large and pointed to the man that was not Sasori. “This is Deidara, a missing-nin from the land of earth. He mostly uses explosive clay and earth based attacks” 

Sakura took in his appearance, he had really long sleek hair in a high ponytail, ocean blue eyes and a kind of boyish look about him. He was cute, she wondered how old he was. Er. This... was probably not what she should be worrying about right now. 

Deidara grinned widely. This was an unfortunate situation but they had planned for such eventualities and they were going to split up. The options afterwards were fight, flight or fight to flight. “Don’t kill that one” He said to his partner. Kisames eyes narrowed, that was strange. 

“I know, I’m not an idiot” Growled Sasori. 

Deidara did something with his hands and out came a.. Clay bird, with a flick of his fingers it magnified to roughly the size of a cart horse. Was it going to fly at them and blow up?! Sakura crossed her arms in front of her face and braced herself, ready to leap away. Instead, Deidara jumped on to it’s back, the bird scooped the limp form that was Gaara in to it’s enormous beak and took of. 

“GAARA! Where are you taking him?!” Jiraya grabbed Naruto’s arm and signaled to Kakashi and Kisame to take Sakura and go. Considering Narutos occasional lapses of control over the Kyuubis power in stressful situations it would be counterproductive to let him go after Gaara, no matter how motivated he was. 

“No! What are you doing?! We gotta go!” Narutos eyes were orange and his teeth and fingernails were lengthening. He pulled at his arm to get away from Jirayas grip. 

Jiraya held fast and grabbed Narutos other arm as well “Calm yourself. Kisame, Kakashi and Sakura are competent shinobi and they are going after Gaara. They are also the team best suited for the task. We will get him back, but we have our own problem to take care of right here” Naruto did not look persuaded but he did pause, Jiraya pressed on. “Kisame knows about his skill set, Kakashi and Sakura have elemental natures that are advantageous. And if this guy gets away, he too will probably go after them all” 

Naruto relented, Karin was so relieved. That cloak of malicious chakra made her feel weak at the knees, but at least the bright sunshine that was Naruto still seemed to be steering the ship. 

While team Jiraya had been preoccupied, Chiyo had been getting ready to fight. “Everything he uses will be covered in poison, there is no antidote. If you get so much as a scratch you’re done for” She unrolled two scrolls while she spoke. “That over there, is his puppet Hiruko. The real Sasori is inside. We’ll need to destroy it to draw him out” 

Naruto sneered in response and crossed his fingers “No problem. Multiple Kage bunshin no jutsu” he growled. And then every wall and the ceiling was covered in Naruto clones on top of Naruto clones. All glowing eerily and wearing menacing expressions. 

“Huh” Jiraya said “Well that’s.. Actually a really good idea” 

Chiyo had summoned two dolls that drew Sasoris attention away from all the orange. “The mother and father dolls, how silly and sentimental of you” 

“Hmph” Chiyo stuck her hands in her sleeves and sent off chakra strings with kunai. He knocked them out of the air with ease. 

Jiraya followed up with a number of hand-seals and his hair started to expand unnaturally “Wild Lion’s mane” he called out, and his hair lengthened and shot out in thick streamers to bind Sasori. The puppet-man dodged, but as he tried to run the approaching Naruto through with his tail he found that it was bound by the strings Chiyo had used to propel the kunai. He sent out barrages of needles but the clones just kept coming and the doll exploded to splinters when it inevitably made contact with one of the rasengan. 

Then Sasori pulled out the corpse of the third Kazekage and the real fight started. 

\--- 

Team Kisame was in hot pursuit of Deidara and Gaara. The orange one had not followed like he had hoped, hmph. Though he supposed with this entourage the chances of snagging him would have been slim anyway, they should be happy they got as far as they did with the other one. He kneaded more clay in his palms and threw a dozen explosive bugs over his shoulder. The pursuers darted back and forth between rocks, water and logs to avoid his explosions, he never thought they’d be this fast. Wait. Where.. Where was the Hoshigaki?! 

The water in front of Deidara exploded upwards like a geyser. The Hoshigaki practically flew at him with his massive sword raised and the next thing he knew his bird was shredded, crap. He flipped in mid air and shot forwards like a bullet as soon as he touched a log. 

Hm. The pink one had caught the head of the bird using some kind of water extension, oh well not like they needed the body for anything now anyway. 

He had no more time to think about the matter as Hatake Kakashi of the freaking sharingan came at him with fists full of chirping lightning. He threw some of his bigger ready made clay figurines and watched as they were cut through without blowing up. Fuck. This was immediately followed by a massive fireball and then the Shark man was in his personal space again, the sword missed by a hairs breadth but there was a weird pulling sensation. He felt weak for a few seconds and then, miraculously, he felt wonderful. 

He was.. Floating? The world was beautiful. Peaceful.. Peaceful? No.. No that was wrong. Art was a blast. What.. “KAI!” 

He came to and he was about to be bisected, he hurled his emergency stash of ready made explosives at the shark-man and detonated it. The blast was glorious, though it was slightly ruined by the shrieked “KISAME!!!” 

The pink one pelted him with water and flew at him with her sword, he was bound. Another genjutsu?! “KAI!” He got out of the way only to come face to face with the Hatake. He might be in over his head here, time to get the fuck away. Deidara darted to the side while stuffing clay in to his own mouth. Then he landed in some kind of water blob, his legs were stuck and five limbs of water rose up from the blob to bash him. He felt his skin tear, there were spikes in the water and pink-bitch was flying at him again and what the fuck?! 

Sakura had her sword raised to strike when the trapped enemy opened his mouth and deluged her with the veritable stream of clay coming from his mouth. It was moving and growing larger and she was enveloped within seconds. _“He’s going to blow us up we have to get out!”_ Inner was frantic in their mindscape. **I Know that!** Sakura tried to use her arms to free herself but she couldn’t even move them. She was completely encapsulated, she couldn’t breathe. **Clay should be earthbased right?!** _“Fuck if I know just ramp it up we gotta do something!”_ Sakura let electricity surface everywhere. It was very unpleasant but at least she wasn’t blown to bits yet. There was a hard thud and Sakura knew no more. 

Kisame had felt his heart stutter in his chest as Sakura was covered in explosive clay. He and Kakashi were racing towards Deidara but he was already forming the hand-sign to set it off and they were going to be too late. "Damn it Pinky!" 

“BOOM! Huh? Gherkk-” The lump that was Sakura had not exploded, instead it had dropped to the ground like a rock. 

Kakashi had his arm through Deidaras chest, Kisame raced towards where the now dud containing Sakura had crashed down and ripped the disgusting stuff off of her. 

Not breathing. When he blew air in to her and she started coughing, Kisame felt like he could finally draw a proper breath too. Kakashi landed next to them, dead Iwa nin slung across his shoulder. He quickly laid the body down and sealed it in a scroll. 

“She must have hit her head on impact, this stuff is kind of mushy but it was a high fall. You’re not gonna pass out on me too are you?” He was looking at Kakashi whos visible triangle of face was white as a sheet. The man shook his head no. 

Thump, thump, thump, thump. Team Jiraya and Chiyo had touched down. They looked decidedly worse for wear, Naruto and Karin were supporting Jiraya and Chiyo but they weren’t dead. 

Naruto let go of Chiyo to dig Gaara out of the remains of the clay bird. The old lady was asking him things and he was answering. Kisame didn’t pay them much mind, his focus was on Sakura and getting her ready for transport. 

Then Chiyo used a forbidden technique to bring Gaara back from the dead, sacrificing her own life in the process. 

\---- 

It turned out that Jiraya had been poisoned during the fight with Sasori. Kakashi being both the fastest of the group and in best shape after the fighting, had immediately set out for Konoha to alert Tsunade of the situation. Sending one of the ninken had been considered, but Kakashi could outrun them all in a pinch and given the content of the message it was better to send a person. The others returned to Sunagakure with the Kazekage and the dead elder.  
Kisame carried Sakura, he wasn’t one to contemplate his own size much but today he was grateful for it. He tilted her sideways as she retched again, she hadn’t been conscious at all yet and he really hoped the suna medics were at least somewhat competent. 

Back where the fight had happened, a hulking masked form emerged from between the trees. Who was the girl? He leafed through his bingo-book. No bounty. He glowered at the book as though it had offended him on a personal level. Then he turned to the end-paper and started making his own notes. 

Konoha. Female. Pink hair. Height approx 160. Medium build. Rank, unknown. 

Kenjutsu. Water affinity. Traps. 

He finished scribbling and shut the book with a snap. No point hanging around here anymore. 

\---- 

The Suna medics it turned out, were very competent. They healed Sakuras concussion along with some broken ribs and then let her sleep. 

Tsunade arrived in record time, she had left her guards in the dust and they were not happy about it. She was however too late to do anything for Kankuro who had perished from the poison still present in him. Karin had refused to let him bite her upon their return. Partially because she was still weakened, but also because her mentor might become critical and she would not risk sacrificing her life for any of them. 

Looking at Tsunade and Jiraya she wondered what exactly their relationship was. Immediately after the healing she had smacked him hard and yelled “IDIOT!” Whereupon he had adopted a sheepish expression and apologized profusely. There had been a lot of hugging afterwards, it had felt like she was intruding on something intimate.  
\----

They all stayed for the funerals, being honorary guests because of the roles they had played in the retrieval of the Kazekage. Team Jiraya was to stay behind a bit longer to help with recovery and to strengthen inter-village bonds, where as the Hokage and team Kisame were returning to Konoha. 

Going home they traveled at a blessedly normal pace, and as they were no longer in a hurry they could afford regular breaks and to sleep when it was nighttime. The Samehada was rustling slightly where it was sitting propped up by a rock, and not for the first time Sakura wondered. 

“Sensei, is Samehada.. I mean, how does it-” She gestured to the sword and made wiggle motions with her fingers. “Is it..” She lowered her voice. “Alive?” She didn’t see how it could be, being a sword and all but there had to be some kind of explanation. 

Kisame sat back on his haunches and considered whether or not to answer. Hm, she WAS his apprentice so he would probably have told her at some point anyway.. Maybe. Eh who was he trying to kid there was no way he wouldn’t have spilled these beans at some point. The Hokage was sitting close by, but she already knew as he’d had to tell her this particular secret already. The guards were stationed at a bit of a distance. He looked around once before he made a ‘come-hither motion’ with his hand. Sakura leaned in closer as he started unwrapping some of the bandages that usually covered the sword. 

“This isn’t commonly known, so don’t go spreading it around alright?” He was uncharacteristically serious and Sakura agreed in equal seriousness. She would not tell a soul. She watched as he kept unwrapping bandages, he had exposed some of its scales now, except, they didn’t really look like scales? 

“Here” He said and took her hand, he then held it to the scales and made a gentle stroking movement. Sakura gaped and repeated the motion on her own. Instead of being hard and abrasive, the ‘scales’ felt silky under her touch, silky and kind of squishy? The Samehada made a low purring sound. 

Kisame lowered his voice and said “The Samehada. Is a sea slug” 

A slug. The sword, was a slug? He was pulling her leg. “But - but it cuts and shreds people. I’ve seen it. How could a slug do that?” 

He touched its hilt and the scales or whatever they were grew slightly and hardened. Taking a closer look she could see countless tiny sharp spines on the skin of the scales. 

“Chakra and the intent of the wielder. Well, intent mostly since it usually has a decent stock of chakra available. Not just anyone can wield it though, it doesn’t speak but it’s a living creature and rather strong-willed too. More than one person have lost life or limb trying” 

That was.. Sakura would never have tried to use the sword without distinct permission, but she had come in contact with it a number of times. She reached out to touch a spike, her fingers came away bloody and stinging.  
“Don’t worry, it likes you. I’m pretty sure it even nibbles on your chakra from time to time. That’s a great compliment out of fighting situations” The sword deflated again and Kisame re-wrapped the bandages around it. 

Sakura had so many questions, she had seen some spikes sticking out once or twice before, but she had never seen it fully without it’s bandages. Did it have a mouth? Eyes? She had definitely felt watched by it a few times, but she’d attributed it to ninja paranoia. 

Huh. Was it possible to... Get to know it? “Does it.. Understand spoken words?” 

Kisame looked thoughtful. “Maybe? It’s pretty attached to me, well, my chakra I guess. I don’t really talk to it much, it’s more.. Sensing. Or something” He gave a shrug. 

Sakura went to sleep that night full of thoughts. Was it a summon? It had come out of a scroll the first time she’d seen it but he hadn’t un-summoned it or resealed it or whatever since that time. As far as she knew anyway. That.. Didn’t quite make sense. 

“Go to sleep” Kisame muttered from the top of her head. “You’re still not all the way healed up and you need your sleep. I need my sleep too, you nearly gave me a heart-attack that stunt of yours. I think Kakashi might have had a small stroke too” 

Sakura rolled her eyes. She was in her own bedroll, but Kisame was as close to her as he had been able to get without him and his bedroll being on top of her. Ever since she had woken up at the hospital he had been very.. There was no better word for it. Clingy. Sakura found she didn’t mind, she wrapped her own arm around the blue one that was slung over her and went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sending emotionally compromised Naruto after Gaara? No, just no.
> 
> Thought I'd mix things up and see things through Deidaras eyes a bit, hope it was alright.
> 
> Happy new year! Byeeee 2020 won't miss yah.


	17. Terrible tactics

Well back in Konoha everyone enjoyed a few well deserved days off from the roster as per mission regulations. Sakura still had training after the first two days of course, and both Kisame and Kakashi had secretly but not so not so secretly checked in on her several times already since the former twos mission debrief late yesterday afternoon. 

Sakura looked over her homework plan, all her training with Kisame and Kakashi was always scheduled but there wasn’t really a set time for any of the things on this list. She knew of course that some if not all of it would be relevant to her training sooner or later. It was only her first day off, but maybe she should practice genjutsu some? Kisame had nixed putting genjutsu on herself ever since she told him about her ‘self-training’ before her Chunin exam back then, apparently it was more than a little dangerous. So she would need a volunteer, Ino would do it, or maybe TenTen? She supposed maybe Kiba could be convinced too, they weren’t close but he was usually up for training. 

She whistled happily while pulling on her sandals, another day and a half to fill with whatever she wanted. Maybe she should grab some dango first? Or some teriyaki sticks? She started salivating, yep she was going to treat herself to that food for sure. She checked her hip pouch, wallet present, also.. Kunai, some ninja-wire and a few explosive tags, just in case. She wore civilian clothes today but that was no reason to be careless. 

She stopped by Shinsei’s ninja supplies by the Nara clan compound to pick up some oil and a fresh whetstone before setting a course for the market. It was bustling with life as always, she got her snacks and sat down by a nearby table to peoplewatch. This was also on her list of 'homework' and it was enjoyable to boot. It was fascinating how much one could deduce from watching someone going about their business. She had done this with Kakashi and Kisame on a number of occasions already and had learned all kinds of tells and signs of this or that. She sat there for about an hour before she decided it was time to move on, she mentally patted her own shoulder for the good effort and got up to leave. 

She decided to try TenTen's house first, they weren't as close as her and Ino but she liked TenTen and they really hadn't seen much of each other lately. She was on her way over when she noticed a sprawled out form a ways away from the road. It was Kakashi. He was laid out underneath a tree, legs crossed, hands behind his neck and orange book covering his face. She considered going over to say hello, but then another thought struck her.. 

She tried to stop the mischievous smirk that started spreading over her face, she was entirely unsuccessful. Well, he WAS technically her sensei after all wasn’t he. Kisame was practically impervious to genjutsu because of his massive and erratic chakra, but Kakashi? Probably not so much, unless he had that eye open of course. He was likely to let her cast it even if he noticed.. Which she supposed he probably would unless he was in a coma or something. 

Sakura hunched down where she was in case he startled and did the ninjathing, better to be visible and remorseful than hidden and dead. She remembered a particular passage from Icha Icha paradise and her smirk intensified as she started crafting the first layer of her genjutsu. 

-

Kakashi was enjoying his rest in the grass, he had sensed Sakura long before she sat down a ways away, she was downwind after all. It didn’t bother him much but he had wondered what she was doing just sitting there, his puzzlement increased as he felt the first signs of a genjutsu being cast. Sakura was trying to put him under genjutsu? 

Well then.. 

Kakashi relaxed and let the genjutsu take hold. 

It was like waking to a dream, he peered around interestedly, it was pretty well crafted. Buildings, streets, a few stalls here and there. Wait.. where was this? This was not somewhere he had ever been before, yet it was strangely familiar. There were people milling about, they were mostly unassuming but some struck him as odd. She would have to work on that. 

He looked closer at the surrounding structures and froze. ‘The hidden seagul’? No.. She couldn’t have. How would she even know about this? 

As though someone had pressed a hidden play-button the scene seemed to liven up and he found himself in the center of things as the plot started rolling. Junko appeared in the doorway to the restaurant and made eye contact with him, beckoning him over. She had long blonde sleek hair, a pretty face and breasts the size of water-melons. She started to walk towards him, possibly it was supposed to look sexy but it kind of looked like she had a stick up her rear while also trying to sway her hips. It was slightly unsettling. 

“Kakashi my love, you’re late” She purred, then she grabbed his arm and pulled him with her past the tables and guests all the way in to the private room in the back of the restaurant. Kakashi quickly went from slightly unsettled to feeling deeply uncomfortable even knowing this wasn’t real. 

She was talking. The dialogue wasn’t exactly the same, maybe he could still read the book afterwards and not cringe -but Sakura sure was smearing it on thickly. He felt himself break out in a sweat. Was this.. Torture? Had she asked him any questions? He didn’t think so? 

Before he knew what had happened he had lost all his clothes and Junko was bouncing up and down on his lap, breasts were not supposed to move like that. And WHAT was she doing with her mouth?! Kakashi tried to clap his hands over his ears but his hands were grabbed and oh no. 

-

Sakura was focusing on maintaining and progressing the illusion, she wasn’t in it watching per say but she was trying really hard to dictate the scene. Inner was cackling evilly and Sakura had a job keeping it from spilling through her mouth. If the look of alarm on the lone passer-by was anything to judge by she might have failed a little. 

Then Kakashi rustled. 

He was moving his arms about in a vague kind of way. “Nho, kami nho” his mumble was somewhat muffled by the book still covering his face but this did not seem like the kinds of things what a man in the throes of pleasure should be uttering. This was followed by a few seconds of silence and then a high pitched sound. Did he- Was that a whine?! 

Sakura studied her sensei where he lay, his body was rigid where before it had been relaxed, and absolutely nothing was happening in the region of his pants. This was not the reaction she had been going for and if it was truly terrible he might dispel it and catch her off guard because he knew it was her and probably knew that she knew he knew and- and- _“Abort mission!  
Abort! Abort!” _ Inner was waving her arms in an x pattern in her mindspape. 

Sakura lifted the genjutsu and fled from the scene in a most un-shinobi-ish way. Kakashi sat up just in time to see the cloud of dust, flying pink hair and madly waving arms rounding a bend in the distance. A short bark of surprised laughter escaped him at the sight. Then he gave his book a mournful look and pocketed it. 

-

Sakura ran all the way to TenTens house. She leaned over and braced her hands on her knees while catching her breath. This is how TenTen and Ino found her. “Sakura!” 

“Hey TenTen, it’s good to see you” Sakura combed her hair with her fingers and brushed some dirt off of her pants. “What are you doing, forehead?” Ino walked right up and started beating dust off her too. 

“Oh, uh. I was running from Kakashi-sensei, though I don’t think he actually ended up chasing me” She found that she felt kind of disappointed at that. “Ah anyway. I’ll tell you about it later. What are you guys up to?” 

“Ino’s helping me mix up some poisons for my weapons!” TenTen was practically glowing as she said this. “I’m gonna try out a few different things. See what I like you know” Sakura beamed back at her, happy that her friend was progressing her specialization. “That sounds like fun, could I come too?” 

“Yes, of course!” Was Inos immediate answer, and she hooked her arm with one of Sakuras. “Maybe we could brew you some too” Chimed in TenTen. 

“Oooh you guys I can’t wait to introduce you to this wonderful world of poisons there is sooo much and you won’t BELIEVE some of the effects you can provoke if you mix things right. Ah and we have to fix up some antidotes too- -And dosages and strengths and- -Ah but daddy said I couldn’t show her that one- -so cool!- ” Ino chattered on about a thousand poison related things all the way to the large Yamanaka domes which housed their plants and their laboratories. 

\---- 

Later that evening they managed to gather the entirety of the rookie 9 minus Sasuke at one of the local establishments. The sensei were there too, but they had opted to spread themselves on different tables for their own reasons. Asuma and Kurenai wanted some privacy. Gai was arm-wrestling Genma, it was an intense battle with many exclamations of love and strength, and Iruka was rolling his eyes loudly next to them. 

Kisame and Kakashi sat by a table in the back. They had been watching the antics of their student and the rest of the ‘rookies’ while Kakashi filled Kisame in on the happenings of the day. Kakashi looked extremely put upon, Kisame on the other hand was laughing so hard he’d had to put his beer down to avoid spilling it. “That’s- that’s the best thing I’ve heard all month!” He gasped out between bouts of laughter. 

“Ya-ha-ha laught it up. I think I might be scarred for life. My favorite romance novel is ruined. Everything was extremely weird and I swear the only times i make women sound like THAT is when i stab them with kunai. It was like icha icha, the horror version” Kakashis eye widened as though reliving something terrible. 

Kisame wiped at his eyes and grabbed his drink again, now only chortling. “Alright so, aside from the horror and the audio, how was the technical aspects of the genjutsu?” 

“Hmm. Not too bad. The casting was a bit rough and it must have been pretty chakra intensive. A few things here and there that stuck out as odd, it was detailed and ridiculously large” He fell silent for a moment “I wonder if it would have been the same if my eyes were open” 

-

Jiraya who had been lurking by the bar came to join their table. He was looking rather downtrodden and he was sporting a black eye. 

“And what the hell happened to you?” Kisame said incredulously. He was one of the sannin for crying out loud. 

Jiraya pulled a grimace. “Uh. Karin caught me peeping on the womens bath section of the onsen.” The man said with a pout. 

“..And you let her punch you in the eye?” Kisame felt his eyebrows climbing his forehead. 

“Force of habit. Have you ever tried running from a rightfully angry Tsunade? Trust me when I say it’s better to take the hit there and then” Jiraya drank deeply from his brew. “The angry rant afterwards was much worse anyway, like a bomb that kept going off. She’s an Uzumaki alright” 

Kakashi thought about Kushina and wondered if the two were similar at all. “She’s gonna be learning from Tsunade isn’t she. Best watch out there, Jiraya-sama" 

Jirayas mouth fell open in his dawning dread and Kakashi patted his arm. 

Kisame stood up and stretched. “Aight time to go crash the party, too much distance from what almost became mushy Sakura-smithereens still makes me itch” 

Kakashi did a full body twitch at that and stood up to follow Kisame over. “Asuma and Kurenai are en route too” He pointed towards Asuma and his not-a-girlfriend who were weaving through the crowds towards their students. 

Jiraya sauntered after them both looking most morose, for once not in the mood to try rounding up female company. 

-

Sakura was having a great time. She couldn’t remember the last time they all got together to do anything, could it have been before Naruto left with Jiraya? They’d ate good things, drank good things, danced (Ino had taught her some GREAT moves), laughed, talked about old times and every single person seemed to be in a good mood. 

There was the sound of footsteps behind her, deliberately made no doubt. Then Kakashi carefully placed one leg on either side of Sakura and sat directly behind her on the bench. He managed it without falling on his ass, probably liberal use of sticky chakra on the soles of his feet. 

Kakashi leaned slowly, menacingly over her shoulder. She turned her head and looked him in the eye. “A-ah, hi, Kakashi-sensei" She grinned sheepishly at him. He reached around her and deposited her bag of oil and whetstone on the table “You left this” 

“S-so I did” Was he mad? She felt her heart-rate pick up as she took the bag from the table and placed it by her legs. Sakura gulped silently. “Are you alright?” Kakashi said quietly. That was, not what she was expecting. At all. 

His eye flitted from side to side, as though trying to catch both her eyes with his one. Oh, they hadn’t talked since she got herself injured back in Suna. He had been.. Worried? “I’m okay, Kakashi” She waited a breath to see if he would be opposed to this familiarity on their day off. Nothing. Inner did a little dance. “My ribs and skull are a little sore but they mended the fractures and the concussion. How, uh, are you?” 

“Maaa.. I made it back fine. That genjutsu threw me for a bit of a loop though, please never abuse my literature in such a way again” The lone visible eye drooped in a very sad way and Sakura couldn’t help smiling at his 

Kisame who had snuck in next to them snickered and clapped Sakuras thigh. “Good girl, but it might be better to ask first next time eh? Anyway you can go over it later. Multiple objects and people is a tall order, or so I’ve been told anyway” 

“Yeah, I guess I could” She conceded. 

"And we will be going over it, the whole terrible affair" Said Kakashi with a smile. This particular eye-smile seemed most foreboding, Sakura gulped again. _"Welp, better make the best of the free time I have left"_ She thought. 

\----

Day three found Sakura facedown in the dirt in training-ground 10 “Oww” She moaned. She was exhausted, her ribs really were sore, and both her sensei were freakishly fast bastards. BASTARDS. 

“Get up Pinky-chan" Said the cheerful voice of Kisame. “Time to practice ninjutsu!” Sakura managed to get her arms underneath her and shakily pushed herself in to a sitting position. She knew better than to complain, at best that would get her running extra laps around the training-ground, possibly with the ninken hot on her heels. No thank you. 

Kakashi had finally introduced them to her, it had been nice because she loved dogs and they were Kakashis dogs, but also a bit strange because.. Apparently she had been a member of the pack for a very long time now ‘And why didn’t you introduce us sooner Kakashi’ The little pug was really bossy and had given Kakashi a real telling off before all eight of the dogs had rounded on her and sniffed everywhere, even her armpits and the soles of her feet. She had collapsed in fits of giggles. When they had deemed themselves done, they had let her pet them all and she was a good scratcher if she did say so herself. The huge black one called Bull had seemed especially impressed. Then the bossy one had volunteered them all to help with her training and holy hellhound what training it was. 

Sakura snapped out of her misery induced lapse when Kisame spoke again. 

“First I wanna see that trap jutsu you used back in Wind country, but without the spikes please” 

Sakura did the hand-signs, she moulded the chakra in her core focusing on the density, she let inner modify the tension and spat out viscous water that formed a a thin cushion-like center and 5 arms on the ground. She let it sink down till it seemed like only barely visible water in the grass. “I call it the starfish” She said. 

Kisame stepped on to it and as soon as his foot touched the center the arms rose up on all sides and hit him with wet smacks. He tried to pull himself loose but he was good and stuck. His foot had sunk in to it and the arms were like glue on his person “This is really good, much better than the last time we practiced. How did you get it to lift its arms up after the casting? I don’t recall it doing that before seeing it on Deidara” 

Sakura preened. “Oh, well! I’ve been reading up on electrons you know because of my troubles with the lightning release, and tension is what drives the motion of electrons isn’t it. So I altered the tension in the water, and then when something with more voltage enters it, that causes the upwards momentum. It’s a little complicated. And it’s not all the way done, I haven’t been able to fine-tune it for instance so squirrels or other critters can still set it off-” 

She continued in this vein for a bit. Kisame wasn’t terribly knowledgeable on this specific topic but he smiled and nodded all the same, she was adorably nerdy sometimes. She also seemed to have completely forgotten that he was tied up to his neck in her trap. 

He should be able to break out with chakra. Fire chakra? No, that might make sharksoup if he got it wrong. Earth? No, mud. Water it was then. He blasted it outwards and the poor trap went with it, flying off and splattering his two teammates. “Oops. Sorry about that” The toothy grin completely belied the apology. 

“At least there were no spikes” Kakashi shook some water off of himself and proceeded to make a suggestion. “Your control is great and your reserves are pretty decent at this point, so how about we try working on a smaller water dragon today?” 

Yes. Hell yes. Sakura did a fistpump in tandem with Inner. 

“I’m ready, Kaka-sensei!" This would require focus! And chakra, lots of it. She would have to watch the output, this would take multiple tries for sure. 

Kisame nodded. “You guys do that. I’m gonna go get some stuff ready for the afternoon lesson. I’ll see you both over at my place at 5” He waved as he walked away and left the other two to work on the waterdragon. Psh dragons, he would have to teach her something with real teeth when she had that one down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm no expert on electricity and used my limited knowledge and my imagination, sooo to anyone reading who knows about this stuff - forgive me 😇 Thanks for reading!


	18. Leaps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wouf, I'm so bad at summaries. It's more Kisame, Kakashi and Sakura goodness. Let the fun times roll

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello dear readers, I love hearing from you and I'm so happy to have people following the story still! 
> 
> If anyone gets uncomfortable at any point while reading please do scroll on down to the end notes.

At 5 o clock they met outside Kisames place. Sakura had eaten, showered and even rested some since the previous lesson. 

They entered Kisames living-space. It mostly looked the same as usual, except where the table usually was there was now a cloth covered bench of some sort. There was also a large board standing a few feet away with near full size front and back diagrams of a male body which had a number of markings. 

“Alright!” Kisame walked in behind them and clapped his hands in the way teachers in the academy would do sometimes. “Time to rip off the proverbial band-aid! Maybe solve some of that sexual tension and whatever other shit we’ve got going on in this team too. Or maybe make it worse, difficult to say. 

God knows it’s so thick I could cut it with my katana at this point. At least Sakura and I talk, you guys suffer in silence and then some of it bursts out of one or both of you at random times. It’s kind of cute and funny sometimes but also a little painful to watch, you know?” 

Sakura scratched at a pink cheek. Kakashi was staring at the ceiling, she thought there might have the slightest dusting of pink just above his mask but it was difficult to tell when his face was tilted upwards. So tall.. 

Kisame walked past them and they followed him over to what was clearly the designated area. Kisame clapped his hands again and spoke in an overly cheerful voice “Please remove your pants and outer shirt, and lay your ass down my good sir so that we may get this dubious show on the road” 

Sakura held a hand to her mouth and giggled nervously. 

Kakashi scowled but started to take his pants off all the same. He had agreed to this after all. A bumbling fool when it came to his own and others emotions he may be, but shy about anatomy and bodily functions he was not. Feelings? What feelings. 

As he removed his forehead-protector and gloves he glanced over at the windows, the security seals were the good kind. Kisame was strong and reliable, Sakura was strong and a lot of things. He could expose himself and relax here, probably. 

Sakura stopped giggling immediately once Kakashi started undressing, Kakashi taking his pants off was.. _HOT._ And holy moly those were some ripped thighs. She watched him remove his jumper and a few other items from his person and then he laid down on the bench, face up. 

“Right then” Kisame said and picked up the pointer next to the board. “As you know we’re gonna be covering male erogenous zones today. Basically this is just more advanced anatomy pertaining to the various weird nerve-endings in the body, the connections they make and the uses they have” He gestured to the board with the pointer. 

“It is also as you know, a practical exercise. You don’t want to be doing this for the first time in the field. We’re gonna be moving through the most common ones, and I want you to pay special attention to any and all physical responses of our subject” He tapped Kakashis head with his pointer. Kakashi swatted it away and glared at Kisame. 

Sakura nodded. 

“Alright, we’ll start low and move upwards. Feet. I guess technically the soles of the feet are on the backside but we’ll start there anyways” He tapped the board. “These two, on the heel here, on the foot blade here – Can increase blood flow and create feelings of arousal when stimulated. For both of these you’ll probably need to use a bit of force but not too much” 

Well that was kind of vague she thought. Sakura started with the heel, she squinted at the diagram and pressed her fingers in to the meat gently in a few different spots. 

“There. Push in a bit more” Kakashi said. Sakura did so. 

“You wanna keep doing that for a bit” Kisame said. “If it’s a target who is conscious you should disguise it by rubbing other parts of the foot too. Now try the other spot” 

Sakura did. Kakashi let out a happy sigh as she carried on. This was really nice, both relaxing and invigorating at the same time. He should get massages more often.. Except letting strangers rub on his naked body-parts kind of made him want to stab said strangers. So maybe not. Kisame was instructing her again, Kakashi wasn’t listening. Her hands were moving up towards the insides of his thighs. 

She had stopped, why had she stopped? He lifted his head to see what was going on, she was staring at.. Right, blood flow. “Uh-huh” Said Kisame. “We’re passing over that one for now, mind out of the gutter Pinky-chan" 

She started rubbing and petting his thighs, Kakashi gave her a few pointers and then he tuned their conversation back out again. This was nice. 

They were talking again, her hands left his thighs too. What a terrible shame. She had grabbed the hem of his shirt. Whoops, should he say something? “Uh, Sakura-” 

“Kakashi” She said exasperatedly. “Is this about the mask attached to the shirt? I’m not gonna try to take it off. Or if this is about scars or whatever I’ve likely seen it before ok?” She said and simultaneously pushed his shirt up a bit. Like seriously, yes she was inexperienced but she had seen a few different naked men at this point ok? And she was doing this, now. 

Sakura looked down at the new skin she had bared and her brain screeched to a halt. There were scars yes, some good looking abs holy crap and a tempting trail of silver hairs starting just below his belly button and disappearing in to his boxers. What really caught her attention though were two somethings placed a distance above his belly button. Symmetrical somethings on either side of his torso a shade darker than his skin. 

Nipples? They sure looked like nipples. 

She had never seen anything like this before. She pulled his shirt up further, another pair, and then another where she would normally expect to find them. Kakashi seemed completely unbothered by this, and was looking at nothing in particular. Well then. Kisame-sensei was talking in the background, she listened with one ear as he explained the possibility of nipple stimulation activating regions in the brain connected to the genitals in both men and women. 

Sakura was still somewhat baffled at this most interesting discovery. She dragged a hand down the left column of nipples experimentally and was delighted to see goosebumps erupt on his skin as she passed each one. 

Better try the other side, for.. Verification purposes. Yes. And.. Perhaps a different type of stimulation? Inner nodded sagely in her mindscape. Her mouth watered. She gave him a quick once over before she bent down and licked the middle-right nipple in a slow broad stroke of her tongue. This time she got a twitch of his fingers and a breathless “Ah” Sakura felt herself flush with excitement. 

Kisame cleared his throat loudly and she stood bolt upright again. 

“Right” He said sounding slightly amused. “So, nipples. No way to be subtle about them really, but like I said they’re very sensitive and well connected so giving them some attention when you’re getting up close and personal could be a good idea. Not everyone likes it though, a good way to find out is to do what what you just did here with your hand and pay attention to any reactions” 

Sakura tried a few different things, all of which produced very interesting results. **I’m enjoying this way too much.** Inner was sporting a wide grin. _“Well he is rather delectable isn’t he”_

“Time to turn over, Kakashi” Kakashi did as asked. Sakura let her eyes fly this way and that, this side too was all lean muscle and pale scarred skin. Smoking hot. 

“Kakashi, will you be ok letting Sakura touch your neck?” Kisame inquired. 

Kakashi hesitated. “Uhh. I think it’s best if she doesn’t, I’ve almost had my throat slit and neck broken a few times, it’s uh.. A bit of a trigger point if I’m being honest” He sounded uneasy. Sakura felt bad for him, then remembered she was in the same profession. Crap. 

“Ok, no touching the neck. It’s an important area but we’ll go over that some other time with someone else, we don’t want any accidents. We’re starting by the feet again” He made shooing motions with his hands and Sakura walked back down to the foot-end. 

“Ankles” Another tap on the board. “There is a point here in this dip that has a subtle connection to the main attraction so to speak” He pointed to a spot on the ankle and Sakura found it on Kakashi. “You wanna rub it semi-hard, if you do it right it might give a light pleasurable feeling. Like with the feet you’ll probably want to not just focus on that area but pretend to give a relaxing massage or whatever" 

Sakura massaged. Then had an inspiration. It was all about nerves, wasn’t it? And weren’t nerve-signals when it came down to basics.. Electricity? She contemplated this for a bit, then she rubbed the spot with her thumb and sent a spark of electricity at it. 

Kakashi jumped, gave a small yelp and drew his foot away from her before turning his head to look at her balefully over his shoulder. 

“Uh. What was that?” Kisame questioned. 

“It was just uh, a bit of electricity. Thought I’d help the nerves along a bit” Sakura shrugged guilelessly. 

Kakashi laid his head back down. “While that was a good idea” He muttered. “Anyone, even a civilian would know you did something ninja-y then. Better turn it down. A lot. It would probably have been nice if it wasn’t so much and so sudden” He heaved a great sigh and made an effort to relax himself again. 

Kisame poked her rather hard on the top of her arm with the pointer and it was her turn to yelp. “We’ve recently talked about this surprise thing, haven’t we, Sakura” He was not smiling, and Sakura flushed for an entirely different reason. Kisame sighed and wondered if this was something they should explore for torture purposes. He would NOT be volunteering for that shit. Or bringing it up. Or thinking about it ever again actually. 

“I-I’m sorry Kaka-sensei. I promise it won’t happen again” And she really meant it. “Mmfh-hm” Was Kakashis response, she took it to mean ok. 

Sakura got back to work. “Um, would it be ok if I tried it again with the electricity? I’ll just use a tiny trickle?” She did have superb control over her chakra after all, it shouldn’t be an issue. 

“Yeah sure, go for it” came the muffled reply from the sheets at the top of the bench. Kakashi had his face squashed downwards right on the fabric, it didn’t look comfortable at all but hey to each his own and all that. 

She directed a tiny, tiny trickle of lightning at the nerve. Goosebumps again, nice. She tried to very carefully increase the input – Still way below what she had used before – and watched as his toes curled. 

She didn’t want to push it too far and risk it becoming unpleasant, she withdrew her chakra, gave his ankle a few more rubs and put it gently down. 

“Well done” Sakura jumped when Kisame spoke. Why was he so sneaky? Or maybe she was distracted. Yeah, she was distracted. “Kakashi? Feedback” Another tap on his head with the pointer-stick thing.

“Um” He extracted his face from the sheets so she could hear him properly. “That was really good actually. Feel free to do the same elsewhere, just start low ok? I don’t want to bust anything, I like all my nerves in good health thanks” Then he laid his head down again, sideways this time and closed the one eye that had been open. 

Kisame smirked and continued on in a chipper tone. “Next, lower back and the buttox! There are some gems between Kakashis legs and buns too but that’s a little invasive for now. I don’t recommend going up somebodys butt on a mission anyway unless you are 100% sure that’s what does it for them” 

Kakashi gave a loud snort and mumbled his agreement, then he reached back, lifted his hips and pulled down his underwear to just below his ass. Kisame had to tap the board several times before Sakura managed to un-glue her eyes from this newly displayed attraction. And what an attraction it was. 

“Alright so this area is just a giftbundle of nerves. They’re all good and the whole area is sensitive really, but you can target individual ones for different purposes if needed” 

“The genitofemoral nerve has ties to the scrotum, it emerges from the spinal column here and here” He pointed at two spots on the back of the pelvis on the chart. “Stimulation promotes ejaculation, uh, though I’m not sure applying electricity to that one is advisable” Sakura stretched out her hands and ran them over the approximate locations on Kakashis lower back before rubbing lightly. “Is this ok, Kakashi-sensei?” 

“It’s nice” He tried to move his things apart, but unfortunately his underwear restricted him. 

Sakura kept rubbing on and around the spots while Kisame started talking about the next one. 

“The pudendal nerves are the main source of sensation in the genital area. They emerge from the inside of the tailbone before they move to the front and split up to reach the perineum, the scrotum and the penis. They are best accessed from the front, but you can kind of influence the bundle if you press hard on the sides of the tailbone here and here.” Sakura pressed, Kakashi sighed and shifted where he lay. 

When Sakura made her first attempt at reaching the bundle with her chakra, Kakashi groaned and grabbed the edges of the bench with both hands. She rather thought she heard it creak. She massaged like this and watched his muscles contract slightly every time she passed over the spots closest to where the nerves were. 

She paused briefly to grab a towel and wipe away the thin sheet of sweat that had formed, she didn’t want to electrocute him after all. 

When she resumed, she increased the output slightly. Kakashi shuddered and moaned and the heat between her legs intensified. Another tiny tiny increase and Kakashi started shifting his hips against the surface he laid on in all kinds of interesting ways. “Ahh that’s good” His voice was gravelly, almost bordering on a growl and Sakura had a job keeping up her massage with the way he was moving and her own arousal flaring. 

After a minute Sakura pulled away a bit shakily, Kakashi gave a slightly mournful sound and stilled. She glanced at the frontal chart and licked her lips, she knew both her sensei would be aware of her excitement at this point with their freakishly good noses. Also they weren’t blind or deaf. So she supposed she might as well go for it. 

“Will you turn over for me, Kakashi-sensei?” She felt breathless and lightheaded at making this most daring request. The words however had barely left her mouth before Kakashi turned around, sat up slightly to remove the boxers that weren’t covering anything anyway and laid back down, now on full display all the way up to his armpits where his undershirt was bunched up. 

Her eyes raked down his magnificent torso before landing on the most recently exposed appendage. It was thick and veined and it pulsed slightly where it hoovered just above the silvery treasure trail. As she watched, a bead of precum made its way down from the tip of it towards the trail of hair. She caught it and smeared it between her thumb and index. This had to be even more slippery than her stuff, when she put her finger in her mouth both men in the room groaned. Inner filed this tidbit away for future reflection. 

She ran her hands up Kakashis thighs towards his groin, he closed his eye and grabbed the sides of the bench again, hard.  
Kisame sidled up behind her and pressed against her back, clearly he too had been enjoying ‘the show’ He placed his hands on Kakashis hips, Sakura looked at him questioningly. “I sincerely doubt he’s gonna be holding still for this bit, so you know in case you want to try and target the actual nerves” he spoke in his laughing voice from above. 

Kakashi frowned. “Hey. I am an ELITE ninja. I’ll have you know I can control myself perfectly when I want to” 

Kisame rolled his eyes loudly. “Yes well, apparently nobody in here wants you to control yourself all that much, so.” He did not let go. 

Sakura blushed and eyed his length, whatever else she wanted she also needed to get at the point just above his pubis for optimal access to the nerves.. Barring direct contact of course. She supposed she could just maybe slip her hand underneath it for a bit? She ran her fingers through some silver curls moving up, and felt the body below stutter with aborted movements. 

She massaged the approximate location, she would inevitably brush against his hard-on every few seconds and his breath would hitch. She applied the lowest amount of chakra she could manage, no reaction. Then she started turning it up slowly, gradually, and watched as his skin flushed, as his heart-rate went up, as his breathing became ragged, as he started squirming, as more precum dribbled on to his abdomen. 

She dragged her free hand down a column of nipples like she had done before, he tried to arch in to her touch and the previous squirming turned in to small rolling motions of his hips accompanied by breathy sounds. The level of mobility was surprising, considering he still had Kisames iron-grip on him. 

Sakuras hand stopped at the last nipple, she bit her lip and went a bit lower. Kakashi felt the head of his dick brush up against her hand and grabbed it. Cupping it in his he urged it lower still and screwed his eyes shut against the sensation of her soft skin gliding over his throbbing cock. He rubbed himself against her hand, he could feel himself rapidly approaching his tipping point and then there was chakra in the other hand too and he heard himself yelling as the pit of mounting pleasure exploded and surged through him. 

“Oh goddd, Sakura!” 

His whole body went taut and he let out a long, loud moan as he shot out rope after rope of white cum. He kept stroking himself with Sakuras hand through it and then he slumped back down, completely wrung out and breathing hard. 

（*＾ω＾） 人 （＾ω＾*）

“Fuck me that was intense.” Kisame wiped sweat off his brow, he looked a little haggard Sakura thought. 

“I’m going to take a long shower, you guys get to tidy up here and see yourselves out” He ran a warm hand down Sakuras arm and then left for his bathroom without saying anything more to either of them. 

Sakura felt like she could have used a long shower too, she was hot and her skin felt too tight. She knew this kind of stuff was part of the setup, but she would have never thought it would be Kakashi at her mercy like this. She wasn’t sure whether she was more pleased it was her normally completely covered and stoic Kakashi-sensei or disappointed that it hadn’t been Kisame. Pleased and slightly bereft at the same time, a strange mixture of feels. 

Kakashi had wiped himself off with one of the sheets and was patting his hips gingerly, yeah, that was going to bruise severely. 

“Thank you” He said to Sakura who had retrieved his clothes for him. He pulled on his pants and stuffed his boxers in a pocket. “Um. Are.. Are we ok?” He had been completely unabashed and uninhibited before but he did look a little worried now, this was a pretty big leap from their normal interaction so she supposed that was fair. “I’m ok, are you ok, Kaka-sensei?” 

A relieved smile. “Yeah, I’m good” 

Sakura started bundling up all the sheets, there really were a lot of them. Kakashi had eyed his bandages and opted to not put them back on his legs. He had rolled down his black undershirt and was holding it out from his body, wiping at stains with the little piece of cloth Sakura had used on his back before. He gave it up as a bad job and inspected his jumper, how he had gotten it on that too he had no idea. “This was poor planning on my part. I don’t suppose you know where the booby-traps in his bedroom are?” 

“Mno, never been in there. You’re a ninja, I’m sure you can manage to get home to your own shirts just fine” 

She took the anatomy charts and moved them to Kisames entryway, she had no idea where he had gotten them but she very much doubted they were his. Kakashi folded together the massage table or whatever it was and carried it over to place it by the charts. Sakura was staring at the frontal chart, something like exasperation on her face. 

“Um, Sakura..?” 

She turned around with a great huff “I can’t believe I’ve seen your dick but not your face, that’s so weird” 

Kakashi let out a hearty laugh and put the bench down. With speed that was frankly unfair, he pulled his mask down all the way, gave her a quick peck on the cheek and shunshinned away. 

Sakura was rooted to the spot, trying to recall what she had just glimpsed. There had been a mole? She knew he had a scar of course. And a nose, definitely a nose, normal sized lips and.. A flash of white? She tried to piece it together and remember the whole face but it was impossible. That.. That infuriating man! And there were leaves on the floor now too! She gave an indignant shriek and stomped off to the kitchen to fetch the broom and dustpan. 

Kisame was still in the shower by the time she was done sweeping up. She hoovered uncertainly outside his bathroom door for a few minutes before she went on home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I realize not everyone likes reading this kind of thing and I did seriously consider putting it in a separate fic. But at the end of the day this too is part of the story and you'll probably see some more down the line at some point.
> 
> You're all smart people and I assume you can tell where things start to turn smutty, we all have our own comfort-levels anyway. If I write anything I think might be considered graphic I'll put a little squiggly thing like （*＾ω＾） 人 （＾ω＾*）or whatever at the end of it and so you may just scroll down till you see it and continue reading. 
> 
> If any of you chose to skip most of this chapter, please do scroll upwards to the little squiggle and read the end.


	19. Reckless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto is the number one unpredictable ninja, Jiraya thinks he might have an aneurysm.  
> 
> 
> Kisame too has headaches.

It had been a shark day today. They’d been her opponents during training several times before of course, but now it was to get Sakura used to the way they moved and what they could do in tandem with her. She had rode on their backs, followed them underwater and tried to fight Kisame alongside them. There had been quite a bit of fumbling, losing eachother in the water and such. No missing limbs as of yet but a few cuts here and there and a crapton of bruises. It was a work in progress. 

Kisame had left soon after training for some personal errand, a pity. She really liked team lunches and it had been a little while since the last one. She munched her katsudon thoughtfully. 

She felt like things had been a bit.. Different, lately. 

Nothing major, just little things. Short silences where she felt like there normally wouldn’t have been any, fewer racy jokes than what she thought there should be, stuff like that. Kisame also seemed a little less touchy-feely than normal which was weird and made her feel slightly cheated somehow, but then there had also been moments like one during the earlier shark-brawl when he’d had her pinned down against a rock and.. For a millisecond she had wondered if he had been about to kiss her. 

Preposterous. It was definitely COMBAT training, get it together Haruno. Sakura clapped her cheeks to snap herself out of it. She would freely admit that the intimate session with Kakashi had thrown her for a bit of a loop even though she had felt fine at the time. She couldn’t help the low-key attraction to her sensei -they were both unreasonably appealing, and establishing new boundaries was tricky business. 

It was probably a good thing Kakashi was busy doing missions.  
\----

In a different part of Konoha, Karin and Naruto were trailing behind Jiraya who was determinately ignoring their many requests for information. “Where are we going?” Naruto whined. “It’s been a long walk and I want ramen, it’s lunchtime” 

“This had better not be one of your ‘research’ schemes” Karin said threateningly, she cracked her knuckles for good measure. 

“No, no. Geez have some faith in your sensei” Both his students gave loud snorts behind him and he crossed his arms and stuck out his bottom lip indignantly. 

Karin and Naruto started talking between themselves, theorizing about where they might be going. Their suggestions becoming more outlandish and perverted each time until Jiraya was pink in the face listening to the civilians they passed en route whisper to each other with looks of shock on their faces. 

“You’ll see when we get there and thats that!” He said loudly before upping his pace and continuing towards their destination muttering under his breath all the while about respectless brats and pains in his ass. 

They eventually came to a stop outside of a large anonymous looking building, they entered and were welcomed in by a very large and heavily scarred man with a bandanna on his head. His face was set in a neutral kind of frown, Karin and Naruto recognized him as the proctor from the disaster that had been their first attempt at the chunin exams. Jiraya greeted him politely, Naruto gave him a slightly dubious look and a silent hello. 

His chakra was calm and pleasant. Karin instantly liked the man and returned his polite welcome with a smile and her own greeting. He looked slightly taken aback at that but took it in stride and started leading them to wherever their destination was. 

It was a confusing place to say the least. With winding corridors going this way and that, Karin could tell that they were descending but otherwise had no idea where they were or where to go if she wanted out. It was unnerving. 

“Um, where are we?” Naruto asked nervously. 

“This is the Torture and Interrogation department” Was Jirayas short answer. 

“Torture?” Naruto looked absolutely appalled. As though he could hardly believe that such a place could exist in Konoha. He walked straight in to Jiraya. “Huh?” 

“Karin” Jiraya called softly up to where she had come to a dead stop. She looked pale and unwell and she was shuffling her feet on the spot. “U-um.. Why.. Why are we here, Jiraya-sensei?” 

Jiraya walked up to her and started steering her in the right direction “We’re not here for you, calm down. We’re here to look at a seal and to meet with someone. Your third teammate, in fact” 

Narutos shout of “WHAAAT?!” echoed though the hallways, and the following bout of loud word diarrhea from the blonde helped defuse the tension nicely. Karin was still a little grey-faced, but at least she looked a bit less like she might be a flight-risk as they marched on. 

Bandanna-man called them to a halt by a large door. He ran his hand over the surface of it, it had to be some kind of chakra lock because it gave off a series of sounds like padlocks being withdrawn before opening up in to a hall-like area. 

There was what looked like a guard station in the middle of the room where a team of grey-clad shinobi sat, the long walls were lined with doors. 

“Ibiki-san” A heavily bandaged man said. 

“Tobitake” Ibiki replied. “How is our young Uchiha guest doing today?” ‘Uchiha?’ Naruto mouthed, eyes round as saucers. Could it be..? 

The man dubbed Tobitake took out a clipboard. “He’s well, still compliant. He isn’t happy being locked up but you know that already, tries to speak of his orders occasionally but remains insistent that he is a loyal shinobi of Konoha. He’s been drawing, training and reading and is responding well to social contact” 

“Very good” Ibiki walked over and knocked on the door. He gestured to Tobitake who pressed a button that judging by the ‘click’ unlocked the door. 

Karins first thought upon entering was that it was more an apartment than a cell really. An apartment you couldn’t leave but an apartment none the less. Then she spotted the one they were meeting with, a pale young man with jet black hair. He had been doing sit-ups when they walked in but got to his feet quickly and greeted them politely. 

“Morino-san, hello” His voice was without inflection, completely flat. It was.. Unnatural. 

Ibiki gave his a curt nod and turned to team Jiraya. “This is Uchiha Hiroto, though he goes by the name ‘Sai’. Sai, this is Jiraya-sama, Uzumaki Karin and Uzumaki Naruto. They will be working with us on your seal and you will be joining their team when you are combat ready” 

Sai had stiffened slightly but answered an affirmative and went to sit down on a chair that had been placed to the side of the room. He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue to reveal the thick black lines that made up the seal. 

Karin greeted him shyly and walked over and leaned in for a look. As soon as she laid her eyes on the seal the shyness vanished and she lit up with interest.“Um. How long have you had this?” She asked and grabbed his jaw to tilt his open mouth for better view. 

“I am not sure” Hiroto –Sai, said stoically. “For as long as I can remember” 

Karin eagerly grabbed the offered written notes from Jiraya and sped through them, then got out her own pencil and started scribbling away. 

Naruto trudged over with an air of dejection about him and peered at this.. ‘Sai’ rather uninterestedly before giving a loud sniff and turning his face demonstratively away slightly. Jiraya slapped the back of his head and Naruto scowled before leaning in to look at the seal. 

After much sketching, theorizing and discussion, Karin had decided to carefully probe the seal with her chakra to see if she might learn a bit more about its design and function. Poor Sai had his tongue sticking out still, and they had applied some weird looking tongs that were strapped to his face to make sure it didn’t move at a bad time. 

Naruto was tapping his foot impatiently in the background as Karin set to work. Slowly, so slowly, Karin moved to investigate the internal structure of the seal. As they had suspected it was an obedience seal, a nasty one at that. It had connections to the brain-stem as well as the pain center of the brain. Though the external structure looked different, it.. Reminded Karin vaguely of another obedience seal she had recently come in to contact with. The one hidden beneath Hyuuga Neji’s forehead-protector. Deep in thought as she was she only just managed not to jump as Naruto lost the battle with his emotions and his impatience. 

“Tch! Let’s get this over with so we can go home. Uzumaki hiden: Reveal!” 

He was already moving to activate the technique by the time he had called it out. Karin yelled at him to stop, but too late. 

The next thing she knew she was opening her eyes sluggishly and blinking blearily, everything was a blur.. Did she not have her glasses on? Why was she on the floor? “ –ver use that on people!” Jiraya.. Why was he yelling? She wished he wouldn't, her head felt like it was about to split open.  
“Could have killed –--” “serious repercussions! --- “ “Karin was-!” 

Everything hurt, Karin shut her eyes and zoned out for an indeterminate amount of time before her brain kicked back in. What.. What was going on? What was wrong with her hearing? What was wrong with her? 

She tried to move her arm to search for her glasses, it felt like her arm was made of lead and jolts of pain shot up through it. Karin tried to speak, when she discovered that she couldn’t she started weeping silently. 

Gentle hands wiped at her face and someone spoke to her in a soft voice. The hand moved to her forehead and a wonderful warmth spread out from the point of contact. Karin sighed and drifted off again. 

“She really should go to the hospital wing, Jiraya-sama. They both should" The stern faced medic repeated for the third time. Naruto was hoovering as close to Karin as he could be without being in the way, Sai was in a similar state as Karin. 

“No, they stay here. Nobody leaves until i say so” Jiraya very much wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose, but his hands were currently busy attempting to draw a seal to isolate and lock in foreign chakra. 

His reckless student had once again done something.. Reckless. He had employed a clan jutsu for inanimate things on a living person, and in tampering with the seal had created some kind of feedback-loop between the seal, Karins chakra and the binder –Danzo, unless they were somehow mistaken. Jiraya had no idea whether Danzo had any way of knowing who had tampered with the seal or which agent it had belonged to, but there was no way that this hadn’t rattled the proverbial chain somehow. They would have to be swift, as he was sure Danzo would be. Shit. 

Naruto had apologized profusely, it didn’t help the situation much but strictly speaking this was a sort of training accident. A stupid, stupid dangerous accident that would go on his record and warrant disciplinary action. The kid didn’t have a malicious bone in his body, but that didn’t nullify damage done. He hoped this might be a lesson to him and that he might think three times before ever trying any such thing again. 

He drew the last lines of ink on Karins skin and pushed chakra in to it to activate. He would have to come up with something different for Sai seeing as the seal on his tongue was in effect. If they were lucky the effect would abate once Karin was cut out of the equation. 

He watched the lines crawl over her skin and settle. He then heaved a great sigh and started rattling off requests, orders and summons for the clan heads to a stone-faced Ibiki and the very confused group of T&I workers present.  
\----

Sakura and Kisame stood at attention in the Hokages office, this was unusual in itself as they normally received their missions in the missions assignment room, but then Karin and Jiraya were there too.. Were they doing a joint mission? Karin looked rather pale and wan, should she be on the roster? 

Sakura had found she quite liked Karin and if they were indeed going on a joint mission ,this might be an excellent way of getting to know her a little better. She smiled to herself and rocked on her toes before looking to Hokage-sama questioningly. 

“I received a missive from Kirigakure earlier this week. The resistance has successfully committed a coup, the new Mizukage is Terumi Mei and she has reached out to Konoha to discuss a possible alliance” Tsunade held out a scroll to Kisame who took it and started reading. 

“I had originally planned to send Jiraya as this is a diplomatic assignment, however a situation has arrisen within the village that require his assistance. Thinking about it, you might be the better choice anyway, Kisame” Tsunade folded her hands and leaned her chin on them. 

“You’re sending me to Kiri” Kisame said with a strange tone to his voice. Sakura tried to lean his way subtly, he leaned away still scanning over the contents of the scroll. 

Kisame felt his midriff bubble with anxiety. Extra helpings of inner turmoil, just what he needed right now. Add a little sprinkle of guilt too at as he leaned away from Sakura. 

The Hokage did her best to seem relaxed, though she really wasn’t. “Yes. I am.” She said without hesitation. “You’ll be taking Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Karin with you as well. The former being your student and the latter an Uzumaki I think they’ll make good additions to this specific mission” 

Sakura remembered all too well that time in Dagarashi port when Kisame had told her of his former home and the things that had transpired there. She also remembered from history books that Kiri had played a large role in the slaughter and destruction of Uzushio. She was just wondering whether he might refuse, when Kisame gave a curt nod and set the scroll on fire with a flick of his wrist. 

This was so not normal procedure, and to add to the strangeness there was no mission brief or order to go home and get ready. Jiraya left with Karin, and Kisame took Sakura to her house for her gear. “Weights off for this one. All of them. Do it quickly and don’t ask questions” She removed the weights on her wrists and ankles swiftly before strapping on her tanto in addition to her wakizashi and a number of smaller weapons. Once she was armed to her teeth and had sufficient supplies they both went to pick up Kisames gear.  
\----

When they arrived at the village gates a short time later, it was to find Jiraya and Karin already there. The two sensei exchanged rapid hand signs, and then Jiraya was gone between one blink of the eye and the next. 

“Time to go, Karin, hop on and hold tight” Kisame bent down and patted his lower back. 

“Uh-Um..” This was clearly an order, it was unexpected and the Samehada was on his back. Karin screwed her eyes shut as she climbed up and tried to ride piggyback on top of the legendary sword and the shark-sensei. He hooked his arms under her thighs and she wound her arms around his shoulders. 

Then Kisame set off towards Kiri at breakneck speed that had Sakura scrambling to keep up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had major writers block, but here it is at last!


	20. Pillow talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Should Kisame resign from his post and join a boy-band?
> 
> Sakura thinks that the village of Yumegakure might be wrongly named, considering the surroundings perhaps city of nightmares would be more accurate?

As expected, the meeting with the clan heads had turned to absolute bedlam within the first 20 minutes. 

The Nara conference center was packed with troublesome men and women from all the major ninja clans in Konoha, representatives from the civilian divisions had been invited too but very few had managed to get there before Shikaku had shut and locked the doors. 

Everyone had been puzzled about the summons at first, a quiet buzz of low murmurs like agitated flies filling the room. A grim looking Tsunade and her guards were stood by the end seat by the large table set out for them, this was enough to get most of the arrivals to take their seats with minimal fuss. 

Once the majority had sat down, the Hokage started speaking to the room at large from her position. 

When they started going through the things they had uncovered, the crowds puzzlement turned to disbelief. 

Stacks of papers and explanations. Old and new extracts from the state budget going back documenting the funding of ROOT, lists of requisitions, records of horrendous crimes and schemes committed against fellow villagers and allies with the apparent approval of the council and the former Hokage. 

Disbelief and disgust turned to outright uproar as Jiraya and Shikaku started outlining their theories of Danzos methods of recruiting members. Kidnapping, extortion, blackmail. 

A shamefaced Shibi had admitted to the room at large that he had unwillingly given up his nephew to Danzo in exchange for his sons freedom, but it had been the revelation of Uchiha Hiroto –Sai’s story and all that it entailed that really blew the roof sky high. Clan children, snatched without anyone being all the wiser. 

Shikaku was of the firm belief that all citizens had equal worth, but he wasn’t about to argue the point now. He glanced at the ashen faced head of the civilian trade division and the single liaison from the civilian council whos hands shook around his stack of meeting notes. 

They were just as affected as the shinobi, but decidedly less homicidal. 

Only the thorough sealing of the room they were in had stopped Fugaku from storming out to find and possibly murder Shisui once it was revealed that he’d had some involvement in the case. Fugaku would be given some information, but he would never know the full extent of his role in this whole mess for everyones sake. 

Hiashi was also demanding to be let out, pacing the room and breathing like an angry bull, rearing to go check his clans records for possible missing clan children. 

It had only been moments since Tsunade stopped speaking but the crowd was growing louder by the second, except for inoichi who had gone unnaturally still. Whichever sorry sons of bitches ended up in T&I after this would certainly get their comeuppances. 

A flair of chakra and splintering wood drew everyones attentions. 

“QUIET!” Tsunades voice echoed through the room and silence fell. 

“We have time for squabbling later! Due to events earlier today ROOT will be aware that someone is up to something. They should not know what exactly but regardless we need to act now. Shikaku, please take it from here” 

Shikaku got up and pulled out a large roll of parchment which he opened on the table. “We don’t know what we’re going to be dealing with. Danzo is a formidable shinobi and he has an unknown number of operatives. Considering his position I would hope that we won’t see damage to the village and citizens but at this point we can’t be sure of anything.” 

“Jiraya, Tsunade, Shisui, Tsume, Kakashi, Shibi and Hiashi will be tracking and moving to capture Danzo. It is likely he will have company. You have 5 minutes to get ready, meet on the roof of the Hokage building. Tsume, if you would let Shisui know, he is just outside the door standing guard” Tsume sauntered out with Kuromaru trailing behind her, she grinned ferally and saluted a still seething Fugaku as she passed by him. 

“The rest of us will divide up, form teams of trusted fighters and head to strategic points in the village.” 

“I will be taking three teams of vetted Anbu, a few Hyuuga and Uchiha and a group of runners here” He pointed to the top of the carving of the Yondaime Hokage on the Hokage mountain. “We will monitor the general situation and will run messages and provide back-up" 

“Choza, I want you to take four squads from your clan to the hospital. Nobody in or out unless they’re dying. Asuma, head to the academy. Genma to the civilian school. Alert the teachers and oversee the evacuation to the safe-rooms.” 

Shikaku continued with his orders and the jonin all flied out as they received them. However they went about this it would raise some kind of suspicion, but hopefully there wouldn’t be any panic. Shikaku stretched and felt his back pop. 

What a shitshow this was, he hoped that what they had uncovered so far would be the end of it but there were still so many lose threads. Where had he been keeping this secret division of elite soldiers? And needing medical supplies and instruments in general he could understand, but the list of laboratory equipment had been.. Extensive. He straightened up from his slouch and set off to man his post. He was too smart to think this would be over quickly, but a man could always hope. 

\---- 

Miles and miles away from the goings on in Konoha, Kisame, Sakura and Karin were making their way through the land of noodles. With Kiri being an island nation they had to travel by boat, and the large port in Yumegakure was their best bet to find something going that direction unless they wanted to row, which, they really didn’t want to. 

Because they had wanted to stay hidden they had forgone the roads. They had kept to the trees for the most part, but the forest had gotten thicker the closer they got to the city and currently walking on the ground level was challenging enough. 

Karin was still riding on Kisames back and she looked distinctly unwell. The Samehada had been draining her chakra for the better part of their journey so far, to throw off any nearby sensors Kisame had said. 

“But why though?” Sakura had posed this question before but had so far not received any kind of satisfactory answer. “We still have ours, and what if something happens and we have to fight?” Sakura remembered her bouts of near chakra exhaustion, the simpe act of walking had felt like wading in syrup and she’d had headaches and nausea. Ugh. 

“It’s classified information until the Hokage deems otherwise” Kisame groused as he marched determinately onwards. “Quit asking questions, focus on your walking and pay attention to your surroundings Pinky” 

Sakura was no stranger to forests, the village hidden in the leaves had more than their fair share of trees. This area however was on a whole other level. It was extremely dense. Trees of different types and sizes, bushes and large plants on all sides made the place feel like it was closing in on her. 

Leaves rustled everywhere, birds, animals and bugs seen and unseen were moving about constantly. But the thing that really bothered her were the spiders. 

They were absolutely everywhere, in all different colors and sizes. Every once in a while Kisames plowing through the underbrush would cause entire nests of them to rain down on Sakura like the little hails of terror they were. 

She had tried and failed to protect herself from the deluge with kunai, the few she did get made spider-goo and she had gotten bitten anyway. After the first two attempts she had started expelling bursts of electricity whenever she thought it might rain eight-legged monsters. Her hair was probably fraying, any and all loose strands were practically floating around her head and her ponytail was pink fluff- but it was a small price to pay. 

At some point Kisame started telling her about the local mythology that had given Yumegakure its name, something about spiderwebs and dreamweavers but she was having a hard time paying attention. The mention of spiders in combination with the restless energy caused by not wearing her weights made her itch all over and Sakura could have cried with relief when the trees finally started thinning. 

Yumegakure was a bustling port-town just like Dagarashi. Sakura used a waterbullet to get her hair to settle down a little now that they were among people, it was only partially successful. She stuck her nose in the air and pointedly ignored the passers by. She had hoped that they would go find an Inn to rest at and maybe eat a good meal before embarking on the next leg of their trip, but to her dismay Kisame led them straight to the docks to find a ship. 

It took them a while to find what they were looking for. Kiri had more or less been a no-go-zone for years and normal trade or transport for ordinary people was scarce. The nearby sailors eyed them suspiciously, but left them alone otherwise. 

Their ride was a dingy beat-up looking thing, but it was about to depart and Kisame had deemed it acceptable. He did no more than double check that they had enough rations left before he bought them tickets and boarded the ship. Sakura could hear the wood creak with every step she took as she nudged a still sluggish Karin over the gangplank and over to their designated cabin, she really hoped they wouldn’t sink. 

It was a small cabin, but it had bunkbeds that doubled as sofas on the lower levels, and a tiny table beneath a porthole. No bathroom sadly. Sakura guided Karin over to one of the bunks and sat her down before opening her backpack to find some food items. 

Kisame did a brief inspection of the place, turned on his heel and headed back outside “I’m gonna be out on the deck for a while, call me if you need me” 

Both Karin and Sakura watched him go. “I guess I’m not the only one dreading going to Kiri huh” Said Karin. She still sported an unpleasant greyish-green tint to her skin and hey eyes were drooping unevenly behind her spectacles. 

Sakura shrugged “Here, have some of this before you go to sleep” She held out a rations bar and water for Karin who grimaced but ate and drank a bit none the less. 

“Do you think we’ll be ok? In Kiri” Karin coughed and blushed. “I mean. Uh..” 

Sakura watched her fidget. 

“Probably” She said. “I know things were bad and they did horrible things, but these are supposed to be peace talks. We’re probably trusting them a lot, sending an Uzumaki and one of their former swordsmen. Probably” 

“...” 

“Don’t worry too much, okay? I’m sure there’s some kind of plan for if things go badly. Sensei is crazy strong and me and you aren’t pushovers either” 

“M-m, he seems nice” Karin finished her meal and laid down, “Cld do without the sword though” she slurred sleepily. She closed her eyes in what might have been meant as a slow blink, but her eyes didn’t open again and her breath evened out in in what Sakura knew was sleep. 

She grabbed the nearest one of the blankets to wrap around her and considered whether or not she should lay down too. 

She was pretty tired she mused, but also still quite wound up from all the.. Spiders. She shuddered and rubbed her arms at the phantom sensation of countless little legs skittering over them. 

In the end she decided on relaxation and eventual sleep. She sat down on the bed opposite Karin with her legs crossed and a nice plump pillow at her back and unrolled a scroll she had brought in case of downtime. 

The scroll contained information about a very interesting area-effect lightning jutsu, Kisame had supposedly pilfered it from someone by the Kumo boarders while he had still been a missing-nin. 

It looked immensely complicated and required her to manipulate lightning outside of her body in a similar way to how she manipulated and shaped water –something she’d struggled with so far. She could make it exit her body no problem, but holding it or steering it was tricky. The scroll was packed full of scribbles, it seemed the writer too had had difficulties with it.. 

Sakura bit her lip and glanced at her sleeping bunk-mate. She really wanted to try this out but where some peoples lightning natures hummed or even chirped, hers almost always produced a loud crackle once out in open air. 

Maybe if she made it extra super small? She held out her hand and after a moments thought let a small amount of it gather in her palm, she could hardly see it but it was there and it clicked softly. So far so good. She frowned in concentration and tried to make it levitate. 

It fizzled out. 

Not being one to give up easily she rubbed her hands together, held her palm out and tried again. And again. And again. 

She had finally managed to levitate the tiny cluster of sparks, she had not been able to control its direction much (or at all) but this was still a great success. So deeply focused was she that she only noticed Kisame re-entering the cabin when he walked in to her field of vision and she started, the little sphere made contact with a blue thigh. 

Kisame stumbled slightly before catching himself on the wall. “Hnyf, what the fuck? That’s mean Pinky” He dumped his clothes under the table and rubbed his thigh grumpily. He was dripping wet 

“No showers” He said by way of explanation. 

Kisame grabbed a towel from a tiny closet and dried himself off a bit, put on some pants and sat down by Sakuras feet to cut some new bandages for the Samehada. It had grown slightly with the constant trickle of chakra from the Uzumaki girl, she really did produce a lot of it but he was wondering if maybe they’d overdone the whole drain thing. 

He supposed it was probably good that this boat trip would last a night and a day, she’d have a chance to get back on her own feet a bit. 

They were moving a bit too slowly for his comfort, but the situation wasn’t really that dire anymore so speed was less important. The most critical part had been getting Karin out of the village since she might be considered ‘a witness’ or something like it. 

Kisame fingered his kunai absentmindedly. How Danzo could possibly think he would get away even if he did manage to find and eliminate her he had no idea. Then again the man had been doing his shit unpunished for decades. 

He was brought out of his musings by the poke of a foot. 

“So, Kiri huh” 

“Yeah. Kiri” He responded in a lifeless voice. 

She let the silence hang until he spoke up again “....Never thought I’d be going back to that place, you know? I’m a traitor and a thief, not planning to give back what i stole either” He rubbed his face and didn’t say anything more. He looked tired, Sakura thought. 

Not knowing what to do but feeling that a distraction was in order, she grabbed her hairbrush from her pack and went to stand in front of him. Then she reached out slowly and started running it through his still wet hair, it had gotten a bit long and could probably use a brush. Or not. 

“Uh, what are you doing?” 

Sakura gave no answer, she kept brushing. A good while after she was sure his hair was knot-free, she parted it and made a double mohawk. 

Kisames eyes had slid shut, but he opened them when Sakura snickered. “Hmh?” 

She turned his head to a tiny mirror on the wall by him, he gave an amused snort as he caught sight of himself. 

Sakura grinned and combed the hair down on both sides. “You could join a boyband, leave the ninjalife behind to sing, look pretty and charm fangirls” 

“Kami no” Kisame mumbled with some of his normal inflection. “Their ears would bleed” 

Next she slicked it backwards. It looked.. Pretty good actually. She dragged her brush over the top of it and made a large wave comb-over in the front. Kisame glanced at himself in the mirror, then turned back to Sakura, put his index finger underneath his nose in some imitation of a mustache and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. 

Sakura giggled and re-did his hair a few more times before she deemed that the task had done it’s purpose. 

“You should brush your own hair a little too, what the fuck did you do anyway you look like some kind of freak pufferfish –Ow.” Sakura smacked him with her brush and he bowed his head to hide his smile when she called him a tactless jerk and told him to shut his damn fish trap. 

While she stepped away to put her things in her pack, Kisame pulled on the rest of his clothes and gear. He messed his hair up with a large hand, fluffed his pillow and laid down to stare on the bottom of the upper bunk. 

A moment later his bed dipped as Sakura got in. He stiffened slightly when she snuggled up to him, but Sakura snaked an arm around his waist anyway. 

“So, do you know this ‘Mei’ person? She’s the new Mizukage?” 

Kisames hand twitched. Sakura paid it no mind. They were entering previously hostile territory, Kisame had been unusually tight-lipped and she wanted some information damn it. 

When Sakura neither moved nor gave any other indication that she might be leaving him to his rest he relented. “Uh. Yeah. Terumi Mei. She’s a few years my senior. Terrifying woman” 

“And she wants peace?” Sakura needled. 

“Well I would think so as she’s approached Tsunade-sama about it. She also has two bloodlines, which, you know, is probably a pretty good motivation for change. She was probably part of the resistance, I wasn’t” 

Kisame reached in to his hip pouch and pulled out a battered bingo-book, he flipped the pages a few times and handed it to her. “Here, that’s her.” 

“Pretty..” That was her first thought. Her long red hair against the blue dress made for an eye-catching sight. “Her hair is almost down to her feet and mostly loose, she must be very strong” There was no need to speculate about this really, the book had her clearly marked as a flee on sight level threat. 

“Yeah” Kisame said ”She could probably beat my ass black and blue, well.. No. But she’s got some nasty nasty jutsu and she used to be slippery as an eel. Annoying as shit” 

“Your ass is already blue, Kisame” 

He snickered quietly. “You should go to sleep, tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. We’ll probably arrive some time after lunch so we’ll have the time to go over over some stuff then. Karin needs to hear it too you know” 

“I know, I hope she feels better tomorrow. I don’t think she’s likes fluffy here much.” Sakura waved a hand vaguely in Samehadas direction, it rustled softly where it leaned against the wall by the porthole. 

‘Fluffy?’ Kisame mouthed indignantly at the roof of the top bunk. 

They lapsed in to silence after that and Sakura started to drift off to sleep. She had made no move to transfer to another bed. Kisame sighed and nudged her so he could lift up his arm, might as well get comfortable. 

“Mhf?” 

“Nothing, go back to sleep” 

She immediately wriggled in to pillow her head on his chest, it was kind of lumpy, stupid jonin vest. She had no more coherent thoughts after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life's been busy and writing's been a bit slow, I'm sorry about that and I hope it can pick up a bit more down the line. Thanks a bunch to everyone who reads and special thanks for any comments given, it's very motivating and makes me smile. Hope you all are well :)


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